A New Reality
by Kim Bell
Summary: As he walked, or rather glided, he was so graceful, to a halt in front of me, I felt frozen, completely unable to move. He held out his hand and said with a soft British accent, “Hello. I’m Addison.”
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer**: I don't own any of the characters in this fanfic. They were all created by the lovely Stephenie Meyer. Although Addison was my own creation, his vampiric abilities and qualities weren't. You get the picture. This applies for all the chapters.

I woke to a typical morning in Phoenix. Sunlight was streaming in through my window, giving the room a cheerful appearance. Slowly, I got up, trying my best not to trip on the clutter scattered about the floor of my room. I fumbled sleepily for the cord to lift up her blinds. Blinking as the full force of the sun shone directly into my eyes, I looked out over the flat, suburban landscape of my hometown.

I sighed and stretched, luxuriating in the warmth of the day. Then, with a sinking feeling, I remembered that rather than being able to relax this weekend, I'd have to work on my research paper for history. Then I would have to supervise Renee as she went to her boyfriend's baseball game. My mother could be very absentminded, and she often needed to be taken care of. I was glad that she had found a man, even if he was younger than she. I thought she would be happier that way.

I dressed in a light green tank top and khaki shorts. Light and comfortable; they were the perfect clothes for Phoenix. I tried to run a brush through my hair, but it was so tangled and knotted that it was impossible. I sighed, and pulled out my ever-useful bottle of hair detangle spray. The label of this small, black bottle was worn off from use. Using quick bursts, I sprayed some into my hair, watching it relax the tiniest bit. Finally, I managed to get the brush through all my knots, but not without loss of some hair.

I had intended to go directly down to eat breakfast, but I stopped one more time in front of the bathroom mirror, examining myself critically. I had always thought of myself as extremely plain compared to other people. What I was most frustrated with, however, was my lack of skin color. I was pale as death, even though I lived in one of the sunniest states in the United States. I'd had this particular thought thousands of times and though I'd never voiced the concern to anyone, it bothered me. I couldn't understand why I was so different from other people. Living in Arizona, I should be tan, blond, and lean. But I was exactly the opposite. I looked like I had never seen the sun before.

Tearing myself away from the mirror, and my personal reflections, I hurried down the stairs, stumbling in my rush to get something for breakfast. I pulled open the pantry, and shifted my weight from foot to foot until I decided to grab a box of cereal. I poured it out, put milk in, and began spooning it into my mouth. Then, something odd struck me. I looked around, and suddenly it became very obvious. Renee. I felt slightly agitated, so I took a deep breath before rushing off to find my mother.

As I entered her messy, yellow room, I found her sitting on a yoga mat. I racked my brains, trying to think of when she had started this new hobby. I drew a blank, which wasn't surprising. Renee had tried all kinds of leisure pursuits, and none of them had ever caught her interest for more than a year. I cleared my throat lightly, hoping that it would catch her attention without startling her. She hadn't appeared to notice my presence yet. I coughed more loudly, and her eyes flew open. She toppled directly over from the meditation position she was in. So much for not startling her.

When she sat back up, her expression was shocked. I had to press my lips together tightly to stifle laughter. "I'm sorry, Mom," I finally managed. "I tried not to startle you." I then remembered my original purpose here, and added, "You forgot that Phil's baseball game is today." Renee's eyes widened at the mention of her boyfriend. She hastily rose, and began to throw on clothes quickly.

I went back down to my breakfast, leaving Renee to get dressed. That was one thing she rarely spaced on. I chewed my cereal, listening for my mother's footsteps on the stairs. When I heard them, I called out, "Mom, don't forget sunscreen and a hat!"

Renee came into view, and said, "Oh, yes. Do you remember where I put my bottle of sunscreen?" She searched the kitchen with her eyes.

"You took it to the pool on Wednesday, remember?" I asked. I walked over to her pool bag and grabbed the small bottle of sunscreen. She took it from me gratefully.

"Thank you," she said, kissing me on the cheek. "I'll call you when the game's over, okay? Are you sure you don't want to come?"

"I'll be fine here, Mom," I assured her. "Do you remember how to get to the ballpark?" Phil played minor league baseball, and I was worried that she might end up at the wrong field.

Renee ran her fingers through her short, dark hair. Her mouth turned up at the corners, bringing the laugh lines around her eyes into prominence. "I'll be fine," she promised me. "If I get lost, I'll call."

I acquiesced with good grace. I realized that I couldn't guide my mother through every step of her life, though sometimes I felt like I needed to. She left for the game, and I finished my breakfast, putting the dishes in the dishwasher.

Since we already had dinner ingredients for that night, I was free to work on my research paper. I started up the computer, and began to take notes off all the websites I could find on my topic.

The hours stretched on as I labored. Eventually, I began to develop a piercing headache from the constant work. I put down my pencil, and stretched, flexing all my cramped muscles. I looked at the clock, and saw that it was late afternoon. The sun wasn't as bright now, and the temperature had cooled minutely.

On an impulse, I decided to go for a walk and take a break from schoolwork. I scrawled a note in my messy handwriting to my mother, just in case she came home while I was gone. I searched out the house key, and put it in my pocket. I walked out onto the still-sweltering street, locking the door behind me.

I began my stroll around the neighborhood, stopping when I saw another person walking directly toward me. I strained my eyes, looking toward the person, not recognizing him or her as a neighbor.

Still slowly, the figure came ever closer down the street. The first thing I could make out about this person was that he was male. That didn't help to narrow down my choices. Then I could see that the man had black hair, and seemed to be pale as chalk. This disturbed me a little, for even though I was pale, I looked almost tan compared to this man. Then, suddenly, I could see every feature of him clearly. I almost fell over in amazement. This man was absolutely flawless, and the most beautiful person I had ever seen. He had prominent cheekbones, and a winning smile playing about his face. However, there was another thing about him that disturbed me even more than his skin. His eyes were a glistening, ruby red. They gave him a sinister look, but his beauty in all other aspects counteracted them.

As he walked- or rather glided, he was so graceful- to a halt in front of me, I felt frozen; completely unable to move. He held out his hand and said with a soft British accent, "Hello. I'm Addison."

**AN: Please review! I'll write the next chapter as fast as possible, but reviews make me feel loved. )**


	2. Chapter 2

**CH 2**

**Disclaimer: **I don't own any of the characters in New Moon, Twilight, Eclipse… hopefully you know the drill. Stephenie Meyer spawned them.

_He held out his hand and said with a soft British accent, "Hello. I'm Addison."_

His eyes bored into mine as he waited for my reaction. Looking into his eyes, I felt dazed and unsteady on my feet. Somehow, though my mind was hazy, I managed to wonder why this man was having such a profound effect on me.

Finally, my senses returned, if only marginally. I held out my hand cautiously in return. "I'm Bella," I said breathlessly. When I touched his hand, I experienced the shock of my dull life. It felt like he had left it in the freezer for a few hours. Dimly, I wondered if he was sick. How else could his skin feel so abnormally cold?

"It's a pleasure to meet you," Addison said sincerely. His voice was like satin, smooth and flowing gently. He seemed like very much a gentleman, but he was very odd. I tried to puzzle out what was missing from the picture, but I met with no success.

"Y-you too," I stammered, heat flooding to my face because of my inarticulacy. For some reason, his eyes darkened at the sight of my blush. I blinked, wondering what I had done to make him angry.

Unexpectedly, he smiled, showing gleaming, white teeth. The sight disconcerted me a little, and rather than look at his face, my eyes were drawn to his clothes. I had been so preoccupied with his physical features that I hadn't noticed how filthy his clothes were, and how much he was wearing. He had no piece of skin showing. Even his face was in shadow, with the brimmed hat he was wearing. I could only see his face, and even that was in shadow. They were tattered and holey in some places, but in spite of how ragtag his dress seemed, he still looked like a god.

"Would you like to continue your walk with me?" he asked civilly. "I just moved here, and it would be nice to get to know some of the people who live in the neighborhood." His voice was persuasive, and his eyes were like magnets, compelling me to agree with him.

I said, a little too fast, "Yes." I didn't know why I was agreeing with him; his voice was just so convincing. Nothing could ever happen to me while I was with someone with an angel's voice like Addison's.

"Good." He tore away his eyes from mine and turned back around. He glided out of the shade we had been standing in, and I followed. I knew I was being unbelievably stupid, but I couldn't help implicitly trusting something about him.

We walked in a slightly strained silence for a few minutes. I racked my brains for something to say, but nothing came to mind. What could I possibly say that this amazing creature would want to hear?

Pulling myself out of my reverie, I noticed that Addison was beginning a path out of my neighborhood. This, if nothing else, set off alarm bells in my head. If we had been going for a walk, why would he be trying to lead me away from home?

I asked slightly suspiciously, "Um… where are we going?" I hesitated, not wanting to sound too distrustful.

He turned back toward me, and gave a smile that looked to me more like bared teeth. The light bounced off his teeth, glittering sharply. Again, I noticed that Addison kept to the shade along the side of the road, keeping himself completely out of sunlight. This was odd. "Don't worry," he crooned seductively. Then, in a sharper voice, he said, "It's not like you have any choice in your destination anyway."

My eyes widened as panic set in. I was freaking out inside, since I had obviously figured out by that point that Addison was no benign neighbor. He had seemed dangerous from the start, in a beautiful kind of way. I had disregarded it, thinking that someone so perfect on the outside couldn't possibly be so very awful inside.

I cursed my stupidity and superficiality, and I wished that I had never come with Addison. Who knew what he had planned for me? I shuddered at the mental images I was getting.

"Let me go, or you'll regret it, I promise you," I said, trying to sound fierce. However, my voice quavered a little. I was instantly ashamed of myself.

Addison smirked at me, looking amused. "Oh yes, since you have _so_ much to threaten me with," he drawled arrogantly.

Now, rather than thinking he was beautiful, I saw his dark side, and the evil that showed through his personality. I didn't know what his motives were, but I was positive that he was up to no good. "What do you want?" I asked, in frustration.

He just smiled at me, and came so close that I could feel the chill emanating from him. I recoiled instinctively from him, almost tripping over my feet as I did so. He ran his icy finger along my jugular. In that instant, I felt a primal instinct to flee.

As much as I knew it wouldn't work, I tried to run away. I knew that I was deadly clumsy and that I had never been a good runner, but if I had any sort of chance at escape, I would take it. However, I was no more than a foot away from him when he was in a flash before me, his frigid hands closed around my wrists.

"I don't think so, Bella," he breathed in my ear. I wanted to pull away; I felt like he was much too close to me, but I couldn't move an inch. "I don't usually let my toys get away from me, you see."

Different possible meanings of Addison's usage of the word 'toy' flashed through my mind, none of them pleasant. I shied away from the threat implied in his words. "What do you want, Addison?" I repeated, my voice no more than a whisper.

"Me? Why, I suppose you'll see, very soon," he replied. He smiled again, showing his perfect set of pearly whites. Again, I was repulsed by something strange about his smile. Then my mind wandered elsewhere as I considered what he meant. I could see no escape; I would just have to wait until he left me alone. He would have to, at some point. Then I could make my plans.

"Would you mind if I took a bathroom break before we left?" I asked, trying to perfect a polite tone. Perhaps I could somehow get away if I was only left alone for a few minutes.

"Certainly, but on one condition," Addison said, matching my polite tone. "I must come with you."

To me, this sounded very suggestive, and I blanched as soon as he said it. The emotion must have been prominent on my face, for he laughed softly, saying, "I didn't think so."

Try as I might, I simply could not think of any way out of this sticky situation. This cleverly ruthless person had me stumped. But then, as I looked from my only available limbs to Addison, an idea began to form in my head.

I brought back my foot as far as I could without losing my balance, and connected with his leg. There was a sharp crack that echoed through the streets, and a piercing pain began to surge through my foot. It throbbed, and felt like it was no longer attached to my foot. I heard my own broken intake of breath, and I thought I must have broken it.

Addison chuckled at my pain, and I glared at him. What kind of sadistic monster was he, anyway? I had probably broken my toe on his unnaturally hard shin, and here he was, mocking me!

I pressed my lips together into a hard line, trying to control my emotions. Anger and pain coursed through me, and I decided to deal with the foremost first.

I breathed in deeply, controlling myself, and said thickly, "Can I take my shoe off and see the damage?"

Still grinning amusedly, he let one of my hands go. I stood on my good foot and undid my shoe as carefully as I could. Gingerly, I grabbed the shoe, attempting to take it off with one hand. It wasn't easy, and I managed to cause myself a lot of pain doing it. But finally, I managed it, and slipped of my sock. My toe was bent back at an odd angle, with a bit of bone sticking out to the left side. I exhaled with a huff, realizing that it was broken, and also that Addison probably wouldn't let me go see a doctor.

"I'm guessing a doctor would be out of the question for a cruel kidnapper such as yourself?" I said bitterly.

His eyes darkened slightly, and he said, "You're psychic." I frowned at him, trying to figure out the mystery that was Addison. I wasn't entirely sure he was a human, perhaps just a vicious monster that kidnapped young girls and… but I wouldn't even let my mind go down that track.

I sighed, and gritted my teeth. "Can't you even let me have a painkiller or something? For God's sake, you broke my toe!" I could feel the angry tears coming into my eyes, and I repressed them with difficulty.

"Correction, Bella: _you_ broke your toe. I didn't tell you to kick me. In all honesty, it was rather a stupid thing to do." He smiled smugly at me, then added, "Besides, this will do so much better than any painkiller could."

I blinked confusedly at him. I had no idea what he was talking about. Then, something hard as a stone hit me in the head, and I sank gratefully into an unfeeling blackness.


	3. Chapter 3

**CH 3**

**AN: **First of all, I'd like to thank all of you who reviewed. It means a lot! Thank you very much. I'll try and update more often, but I can't make any guarantees, since I have a life. Not much of one, I'll admit!

**Disclaimer:** Since it comes to this again, I should say that I don't own Twilight… wish I did. Addison is mine, though. –evil cackle- Yes, all mine. He's such a great villain.

_Then, something hard as a stone hit me in the head, and I sank gratefully into an unfeeling blackness._

When I awoke, I was aware of two aching pains. The first was my toe, which felt like it was on fire. Automatically, I reached down to touch it. I was met with a sharp, grating pain, and I hissed in surprise, withdrawing my hand quickly.

My second pain was in the form of a huge headache. It felt like I had gotten my head smashed into a cement wall. Then, remembering the events right before I had slipped into unconsciousness, I realized that something hard _had_ hit me in the head: Addison's hand. I wondered, not for the first time, how his skin and bone could possibly be so hard.

I groaned, and using my good leg, I gingerly sat up and looked around at the room I was in.

The first thing I noticed was that it was freezing. I shivered involuntarily, but my eyes kept roving around. I seemed to be in a bathroom. The tiles on the floor were chilled to my skin, and the walls were a plain builder's tan. There was a sink and toilet, both of which seemed to be in a reasonable working order.

That was good, since at the moment, I couldn't think of a need more pressing than my need to pee.

After washing my hands, I decided that I would have to try the door. I walked over and turned the knob, but I of course had no luck. I grimaced, but wasn't surprised. I hadn't actually thought that Addison would be stupid enough to leave the door unlocked for me. But unfortunately, there were no windows in the room, either. Shoot. How was I supposed to make a good escape if Addison wouldn't give me a way out?

I slumped to the ground again, witty moment aside. There really wasn't anything amusing about this situation, except maybe to Addison, and he didn't count, being a sadist and all.

I don't know how long I sat there, trying to ignore the piercing pain of my toe. I may have fallen asleep at some point, so it was at least a few hours. I was just starting to get a little stir-crazy when I got up to pace. Then I remembered that I couldn't walk, let alone pace around a room.

So it was back to the floor for me. But then, the door was open before me, and Addison was standing there. I blinked rapidly. Where had he come from? I thought I would have at least heard him coming up the hall toward the bathroom.

His lips curled up at the corners, into what was obviously meant to be a smile. It was more of a leer in my opinion, but I guess I was prejudiced.

"So, you've finally woken up," he said, in his soft, silken voice. No longer did it seem beautiful to me, but dangerously cruel. I had finally realized exactly how sinister Addison was.

"'Finally' was about four hours ago," I said acidly. Despite my fear, I couldn't get over being angry with him for leaving me alone like this. Then I realized that my only escape route was open in front of me right at this moment. My eyes darted to the door, and I wondered if he would be able to catch me if I ran. Probably, since no doubt I would trip, and I had no idea where I was going, either.

As if reading my thoughts, Addison's voice turned sharp. "Don't even think about it. I could catch you before you were out of the room all the way."

I couldn't help but wonder what he meant by that. Surely even he wasn't that fast. Maybe he was a track runner. That would explain why he was so physically fit.

"So, would you like to tell me _finally_ what you want from me?" I asked. If he was going to kidnap me, he wasn't going to get away without giving me some answers first.

"Honestly? No, not really." He eyed my neck again, and I repressed a shudder. That made it pretty clear to me what he wanted.

"I'd rather you kill me first," I said boldly. At this, he looked puzzled, like he couldn't understand what I was talking about.

"Bella, you're going to die regardless, so it doesn't matter, does it?" Addison said blandly. "Would you like all the gory details on your impending doom?"

At his words, I gasped, and my legs buckled beneath me. It wasn't exactly a pleasant thing, having someone telling you that you were about to die. I felt myself shaking, and I couldn't think of a word to say. I didn't even think I could talk right then.

"I'll take that as a yes," Addison said. His red eyes flashed, and he began, "Let me first say that you smell simply _delicious._ So you can obviously understand why I had to kidnap you in the first place."

I didn't understand at all, actually. What was he talking about? A bit of my former bite returned to me, and I said, "Oh yes, I can totally sympathize with my kidnapper's reason for taking me away from my life."

Addison smiled again, amused. 'Surely you know that I'm a vampire?" he questioned. "I'm actually not supposed to tell you that, but it doesn't make a difference since you're going to die today anyway."

My jaw dropped, and my eyes must have been as wide as dinner plates. I made an odd strangled noise, and choked out, "Vampire!" I knew that I should doubt what he said, but I just couldn't. For one thing, it was only the supernatural that made sense for all of the strange things I had observed about Addison. His red eyes, his hard and pale skin, and his speed- it kind of fit.

"Then I could kill you with a piece of garlic," I spat, realizing a second later that I should have kept my mouth shut for the element of surprise.

Then to my own surprise, Addison began chuckling. "Garlic, killing _me_," he laughed. "The idea is absolutely comic!"

I raised my eyebrows. "Egotistical much?" I asked him. But what he said bothered me. Perhaps garlic couldn't kill him. What would I do then? Not that I had garlic, but it seemed to be the easiest way out of them all to kill him.

"Yes, actually, I am a bit egotistical," Addison admitted. I frowned. This was unexpected. I hadn't thought he would actually admit it. "But it's true. Mere garlic could never kill me. Wooden stakes don't kill me either," he added. "Although it might have been amusing to watch you wave a clove of garlic in front of my face, expecting me to scream in agony."

I opened my mouth to retort, but before I could think of words, Addison's freezing hand was over it. "Out little chat is over," he informed me. "I'm having trouble controlling myself right now."

A chill of terror passed over me, and I tried to break free. It was completely futile, like I expected. But I had had to try. I could never have forgiven myself if I didn't do everything in my power to break free from this disturbed vampire.

He threw me over my shoulder. I stifled a scream, since my toe was jostled roughly in the process. But I forgot all about my toe in the next moment, since Addison ran. I had never experienced anything so terrifying. We were probably moving at a hundred miles an hour plus, and I felt like we were about to run into a wall at any second. I could almost feel my complexion turning very green.

When he finally stopped, he didn't even seem out of breath, while I was panting as hard as a runner just having run a marathon. Addison dropped me onto the ground, with absolutely no regard for my injuries. My head screamed in protest, and I screwed my eyes shut against the pain of it.

When it finally had subsided, I opened my eyes, looking around. We seemed to be in a secluded forest. I couldn't see anything for miles around, except something that gave me hope: smoke rising from some kind of fire.

Addison was watching me, with a feral, hungry look in his eyes. He obviously couldn't resist anymore, and so he snaked an arm around my waist, and pulled me up. Quickly, before he could stop me, I screamed as loudly as possible. Hopefully, the people that might or might not be near the fire could hear me.

He disregarded my scream, thinking that there was no one around to hear me, and did what I had been dreading. His teeth sank into my neck, and I screamed again, from pain this time. I began to grow weaker and weaker, seeing my blood drain out of my neck before my very eyes.

But then something odd happened. Addison snarled, and was gone from my blood. I felt light-headed, and I fell to the ground heavily. I thought I was probably dead by now. How could I not be? A vampire had just sucked out a fairly large amount of my blood.

My mind floated, and I felt very much at peace. But then, I felt an awful pain spreading in my neck. For a moment, I thought that Addison was back, and I despised him for ruining my last moments. But the pain continued, and I realized that it was different from the pain of Addison sucking my blood.

This pain was worse, like a fire running through my veins. Slowly, but surely, it began to spread through my body, until I was in complete agony. I screamed sharply, trying not to thrash around, since it was worse when I did that.

I didn't have enough free brain space to wonder where Addison had gone. I was much too occupied with my own torment.

However, I had to wonder a little, when I heard a velvety voice that was not Addison's saying, "Isn't there anything at all we can do for her?"

Then, another grave, yet angelic-sounding voice said, "No, I think she's too far gone. The best we can do is wait it out with her. We may be able to help her adjust once she changes."

**AN:** So, how'd you like it? Have any suggestions, or requests? Review and tell me! This chapter didn't take me very long, and I wrote it so quickly in honor of finally getting reviews. –hint hint-


	4. Chapter 4

**CH 4**

**AN: **Again, thank you guys for the reviews. I also had a question that I thought I should answer here.

i'm kinda confused, why did Addison wait so long to bite her? he could've just bitten her when she was unconsious or something. —Okay, so you have to remember that Addison is really and truly a cruel person. He has no regard for the feelings of others at all. All he wants is (obviously) to drink blood and enjoy his vampiric abilities. So basically, he wants to play cat and mouse with Bella, but his hunger gets the best of him. Clear?

**Disclaimer: **I don't own Twilight… but I do own Addison! Oh, and I don't own the Foo Fighters either. Thank the Lord. No offense to their fans.

"_No, I think she's too far gone. The best we can do is wait it out with her. We may be able to help her adjust once she changes."_

I hugged myself tightly around me, wishing to stop the pure agony that rocked my body. It was one of those unbearable pains, the ones that hurt so awfully that you try to stop them in any way you can, but you never are able to alleviate it at all. Right now, it felt like every vein in my body was being viciously stabbed repeatedly. I screamed again, though it never did any good. I couldn't help it anymore. I begged for the pain to stop, though no one was listening.

Then, I felt a cold palm on my chest. The chill of the person's skin seeped through my clothes, but it felt good to me. Unconsciously, I calmed slightly, knowing that I wasn't alone in my torture.

I heard a velvety, smooth man's voice speaking rapidly to someone. I was surprised I was able to make out the words at all; the man was talking in a very low-pitched voice. "She's almost gone," he said. I detected a hint of sorrow in the man's voice. _For what, though_, I wondered. I, for one, was glad beyond belief that I was dying. Dying would free me of the pure torment that was still coursing through my veins.

Turning my attention back to my exquisite pain, I dimly wondered why I didn't feel as much of a need to scream and stop the torture anymore. I then realized that my pain had… slowed. Now the fire flowing through my veins was only a dull throbbing throughout my body.

I felt a wonderful sense of relief at the thought that my agony would be ending soon. Perhaps I was dying… if I was, I wouldn't complain. Heaven was probably a nice place. There was nothing to keep me on Earth, anyway. Except maybe my duties to Renee…

Lost amidst my thoughts, I was startled when suddenly, something inside me stopped up. None of my systems seemed to be working anymore. I took one last deep, shuddering breath before my breathing stopped entirely. _This is it_, I thought. _I'm dead._

But as the thought passed through my mind, an electric shock passed through my body. I didn't feel very dead. Actually, I felt very much alive. I found that I could finally open my eyes. My jaw dropped as I looked around.

It wasn't my surroundings that amazed me. I was still in the very ordinary forest in the middle of nowhere. No, what shocked me was how _clear_ everything seemed to be. Everything was sharp and fresh in my eyes, and I was unused to it. My eyes swept the forest, and I caught the slightest movement of a squirrel climbing up a tree. _I would never have been able to see that yesterday_, I thought. _What's wrong with me?_

I took a cautious step forward, and I was surprised when I stepped on a very large stick. The fact that I stepped on it was nothing unusual, but the stick then broke. _I'm not that heavy_, I thought, frowning to myself. I bent down to pick it up, almost having a heart attack when I saw my arm and hand. I thought I had been pale before, now I was literally as white as Addison!

Regardless of my new observations about myself, I still reached for the stick. When I picked it up, it immediately crumbled to a very fine powder, floating gently to the ground. I stared at it in astonishment. This stick hadn't even really been a stick; it was more of a tree branch! How could I possibly have broken that myself?

I sat down lithely, putting my head between my hands. There was something wrong with me, and I still didn't know what it was. All I knew was that it had to do with vampires, and the fact that Addison had begun to drink my blood. I wondered why I wasn't tearing up by now. When I was upset, I cried despite myself. I was a very overemotional person, much as I hated to be. But the tears wouldn't come. I stared at my hands, dry-eyed.

Then, a flash of white from out of the corner of my eye distracted me. Slowly, four people materialized into view. I knew immediately that they were vampires; they had the same ethereal beauty as Addison, and had the same pale skin color… Oh.

Suddenly not caring about the group gliding towards me, I realized what I had overlooked before. I was super strong like Addison, and had the same skin color that he had. Oh no. This must mean that I was somehow… a vampire.

A musical voice drifted from the vampire at the head of the group, who was a slight woman with pin-straight blonde hair that was just down to her shoulders. She, like the others, was one of the most gorgeous people I had ever seen. "Hello," she said gently.

"Who are you?" I asked. I could her the tension in my own voice.

She smiled, revealing perfect, glaringly white teeth. "We're vampires, of course," she said cheerfully. "I'm Kim, and these are my companions Helen, Tyson, and Michael." She indicated each as she said their names.

Helen was plainer than Kim, although still stunning, with large, perfectly spaced red eyes, and light brown hair.

Tyson had black hair, and appeared to be the stereotypical suspicious, brooding type of person. He had high cheekbones and deep, garnet eyes, and held himself in a posture that wouldn't invite anyone to approach or talk to him.

Michael would have been a traditional California handsome guy if he were human. But he lacked the tan skin tone, so he simply looked slightly strange upon close examination. But nevertheless, he was beautiful, with untidy brown hair and an agreeable and gorgeous face.

I blinked, saying, "It's nice to meet you all." Even though I knew that these people were vampires, my inbred manners forced me to be polite.

Helen smiled, and nodded to me. Tyson just stared at me intensely. Something in his gaze seemed out of place, and I looked away from him quickly. "Hey! What's your name?" Michael said enthusiastically.

"I'm Bella," I said, a little intimidated by these four vampires, obviously more experienced than I. I expected heat to rise to my face immediately, but to my great surprise, nothing at all happened.

"We're glad that you're one of us now!" Kim chipped in, smiling brightly. "I hope we can help you out for the first few years as a newborn. They're kind of tough, especially on your own."

"You should be glad we found you when we did," said Tyson in a low, slightly menacing voice. "Otherwise you could have gone on a killing spree in the first town you had seen, and that would _not_ have been good."

"That's right," agreed Helen. "We don't want the Volturi around here."

I looked from Tyson to Helen, confused. "Who are the Volturi?" I asked aloud.

"They're other vampires," said Kim, glaring at both of them. "They kill vampires who reveal our existence to humans, in all essentiality. Anyway, you would be dead if we hadn't saved you anyway, so it's a moot point. We were bound to stay around after that."

"Thank you very much for saving my life," I said sincerely. There was a muffled snicker from Tyson, which I didn't understand at all. But then I decided to touch on another issue that was bothering me. "What did you mean when you said that the first few years as a… newborn are hard?" I asked.

"Well…" Michael answered, choosing his words carefully, "Obviously, as a vampire, you have to feed off humans. As a newborn, a brand new vampire, it's nearly impossible to control your instinct to attack and drink when you're around them. So during the first few years that you're a vampire, you really need to learn control of your constant thirst for blood. It's much, much harder without older vampires to help you, or restrain you if necessary. You don't want the Volturi to come," he finished.

I stood still for a moment, digesting all this new information. As he had pointed out, I could feel a burning in the back of my throat. But obviously, there weren't any humans to hunt in this part of the world, wherever we were.

"Speaking of newborns, and their characteristics, your eyes aren't nearly as bright as most newborns' are," Helen observed about me. "I wonder why."

"Isn't it _obvious?_" Tyson asked condescendingly. "She had over half of her blood drained by that other vampire that she was with. So she wouldn't have had as much blood in her body when she was changed." He sneered at them as if what he had just stated was painfully obvious.

There were soft _oh's _of realization from Kim, Helen, and Michael as they registered what he meant.

I frowned, confused again. This was proving to be a very long day for me. I interrupted, "Wait, what's that about my eyes?"

Michael smiled, seeming willing to explain vampires to me again. "We start out as newborns, and our eyes are bright, ruby red. Usually they're only that color after we've fed, and fed a lot. Newborns' eyes are that bright because they already have blood in them from their human time. So Helen was just wondering why your eyes were a slightly darker color than usual."

"Great," I muttered. "I'm even more of a freak than I thought I was."

Tyson rolled his eyes and said, "It's just natural, about your eyes. Simple logic, really. I guess I'm the only one here with any remote powers of reasoning. Sorry guys, you're all just chimpanzees."

Yet again, I noticed how unpleasant Tyson was, and I wondered what had made him this way. There was no way around it; he was just disagreeable because he could be. It made me wonder as well, why he would be with a group that he obviously had no respect for. Why would they put up with him in the first place? He certainly didn't do anything for their personal appeal overall.

But they all smiled good-naturedly at Tyson's jibe. Flexing his rather impressive biceps, Michael joked, "Yeah, I definitely think that a chimpanzee can be as buff and handsome as me."

Helen smiled warmly at Michael. Her met her eyes, and returned the warmth directly in an answering grin. I didn't see how I'd missed it before, but there was definitely a subtle connection between the two. I had no doubts that they were together.

However, that left Kim and Tyson as the two that awkwardly had to avoid Helen and Michael as a couple. For some reason, I couldn't picture chipper, blonde little Kim with the dark and moody Tyson. The two together would be almost an oxymoron.

However, then Michael, obviously being the prankster and jokester of the foursome, decided to ruin the romantic moment by bursting into song. He began to sing a song that I vaguely recognized as having heard on the radio once or twice. He obviously meant it as a joke, but it couldn't seem that way to me. His voice was just too perfect. It was absolutely flawless as it flowed over the notes of the song.

The rest of his friends, however, groaned and put their hands over their ears. "He does this all the time," Kim informed me. "Leave it to him to ruin his relationships."

Tyson, meanwhile, had his eyes screwed shut and was bellowing, "Couldn't you have at least picked a _decent_ song to develop an obsession with? I mean, honestly! The Foo Fighters?"

Michael stopped, and said in an injured tone, "For one thing, I would like to point out that the Foo Fighters are a good band. Second, at least _I_ can sing!"

Tyson whipped his head around, glaring at Michael. "What are you saying?" he said, dangerously quiet.

Kim and Helen's eyes widened at the same time, and they immediately made moves to intervene. "Tyson, stop, he was joking! Please calm down!" Helen entreated in her calm voice.

There suddenly was a ripping noise filling the clearing. I felt a strange sense of terror, and I looked around for the source of the noise. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, I tried to follow the sound. Having done this, I realized that the snarling was originating from Tyson, who was glaring at Michael threateningly. Michael stood stock-still, and Tyson wheeled around into a crouching position.

I backed away as quickly as possible, absolutely terrified. I had never actually seen a vampire fight before, and I wasn't eager to have it happen anytime soon.

**AN: **Ooh, cliffy! Most of the chapters I write will probably be ended much like this. I just can't resist. Sorry, guys! Hopefully I'll get some inspiration and find time on another rainy day or some such thing to write Chapter 5.


	5. Chapter 5

**AN: **Thank you for all the reviews I got. It's nice that some people take the time to criticize or compliment, and I appreciate it! And as another side note, most, if not all, of my chapter endings will be cliffy. It's much more fun for me that way.

**Disclaimer:** I don't own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer owns all the characters. Excepting Addison, Kim, Michael, Tyson, and Helen.

_I had never actually seen a vampire fight before, and I wasn't eager to have it happen anytime soon._

Nevertheless, I couldn't see Tyson and Michael stopping their fight anytime soon, unless I could help Helen and Kim force them apart.

Helen lunged at Michael with superhuman speed, pinning his arms behind his back and struggling to keep him down. He snarled at her and endeavored to free himself. He was obviously slightly stronger than she, and her arms quaked with the effort of holding him down. "Please don't," she whispered pleadingly in his ear.

Meanwhile, Kim tried to hold Tyson down. She was having even less luck than Helen. Tyson was finely toned, while Kim was a tiny vampire. However, having vampire strength helped her case slightly. She shook even more violently than Helen as Tyson strove desperately to break free of her grasp.

I was uncertain how much I could help, and I was reluctant to take the risk of accidentally letting go. I had just begun to step forward hesitantly when the white form of Tyson finally broke free from Kim. He flew like a bullet toward Michael. They collided with a huge impact, sounding like an avalanche.

Helen turned even whiter than usual, which was saying something, and let go of Michael, slowly backing up. I could see her predicament. She obviously loved Michael, but Tyson was part of the family as well. It was plain that the last thing she wanted to do was take sides. Kim looked similarly unsure.

Helen made her decision quickly. She dashed over to the moving, white blur near the trees, and made the size of it increase considerably.

I moved near Kim, watching them worriedly. "Who's Helen going to help?" I asked quietly. I hadn't been with them nearly long enough to predict where Helen's loyalties would lie.

"Michael, definitely," she answered, matching my voice level. "First of all, Michael and Helen are hopelessly in love. I've never seen anything that strong. Second of all, though we try to see the best in Tyson whenever we can, he's very negative a lot of the time, and doesn't make vampire life any easier for our coven."

I nodded mutely. I had been wondering why Tyson stuck with the rest of them, since he seemed to treat them all with contempt. "Should we help?" I asked her.

"No," Kim answered quickly. "Five would be too many fighting at once. You're a brand-new vampire, and you might end up hurting Michael or Helen. Truthfully, I don't even want Tyson to get hurt. This is a very pointless fight. We had been planning on doing something about Tyson for a while, but definitely in a nonviolent way."

"I can respect that," I voiced my thoughts. "This is awful to watch, though." I winced, hearing a sharp crack ring through the air. I strained my eyes, trying to see who had been hurt, hoping that it wasn't Helen or Michael.

"Vampires heal easily," Kim reassured me. "Don't worry about it. I think they would refrain from killing each other, and though they may be in pain for a little while, their arm will just reattach itself if it gets pulled off."

My eyes grew as wide as tennis balls, and I felt oddly disgusted. "How… exactly would the arm… reattach itself?" I asked, my voice breaking in the middle of the sentence.

Kim looked a little uncomfortable. "Well…" she began, and thought for a moment. "The pieces of a vampire's body that have been… dismembered… eventually find their host and like I said, reattach themselves."

"Oh." I said, shuddering. "That's nauseating."

She nodded solemnly and turned her attention back to the fight. Loud cracks and snaps could be heard coming from the large blur that was Helen, Michael, and Tyson. She clenched her fists, the bones in them sticking out from the tension. Despite what she had said previously, Kim looked edgy as she stared intensely at her friends.

I crossed my arms over my chest and tried to distract myself. I cast my mind around for a different subject, and one face swam into my consciousness. It was Renee. Far from thinking happy thoughts, I began to worry about what I had left behind when I had so unwittingly followed Addison away from Phoenix.

Renee, and my father Charlie, who lived in Washington, would be worried sick about me. I wouldn't be at all surprised if they were searching every corner of the earth for me. I felt awful about it. If I hadn't been so naïve, my poor parents wouldn't have to go to the trouble of looking for me.

I continued to fret about my disorganized mother trying to get through life without a helper. I managed to reassure myself a little bit. She would at least have Phil to help order her life. But he might not stay around forever, and then she would be left with no one.

Suddenly, Kim rising fluidly beside me, exhaling in relief interrupted my musings. In an instant, we were over near the others. I hadn't even been aware of getting up, so the sudden movement surprised me.

My eyes roved around, taking in the scene. Tyson was lying on the ground, both arms gone. Ragged edges surrounded the holes. I closed my eyes, not wanting to see any more of the extent of his injuries.

I looked around at my other friends. Helen and Michael were nursing missing fingers, but otherwise seemed to be unhurt. I supposed this was because they had outnumbered Tyson by a whole vampire.

Not wanting to see their body parts refasten themselves, I turned and sped off further into the woods. I marveled at how _fast_ I could go. The wind whipped in my face fiercely as I continued to dash as quickly as I could. I loved how I never seemed to slow, how I could go forever without tiring.

Finally, I forced my legs to slow. I stopped, and inhaled immediately. There was a peculiar smell filling the air. I frowned in consternation, and looked around for anything out of the ordinary. Seeing nothing, I blinked a few times and walked around to search for the odd scent.

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I caught a small movement. It was simply a squirrel, frozen as it saw me. I saw a red curtain descend over my eyes, and my senses sharpened again. Being a fairly intelligent person, I realized what was happening immediately. What I smelled was blood, and I needed to hunt _now._

Unconsciously, I moved toward the little creature at the speed of lightning. I pounced on it faster than I had time to blink. My primal instincts took over, and I sank my teeth into the squirrel's neck, sucking in the warm blood. I enjoyed the feel of it flowing into my mouth, but I was taken aback at the taste. I thought that blood would taste better than _this._ The squirrel had blood that almost tasted musty, or stale. I didn't know what felt so odd about it, but I knew that having to drink that kind of blood every day wouldn't exactly be pleasant.

I sped back to my coven's section of the forest, following the scent of the other vampires with me. Kim and Helen were frowning, peering into the forest with great concentration. They saw me immediately, and their faces relaxed into relieved expressions.

However, Helen's expression tightened again as I came closer. She inspected my eyes and said, "You didn't do anything too conspicuous, did you?" she asked, her words flowing so quickly they seemed to trip over themselves.

I cocked my head to one side, not understanding what she meant. "What do you mean?" I asked her. "I just went off to think by myself for a while."

Her eyes narrowed, and she said, "I can smell the fresh blood on you. You've been feeding, and if anyone saw you, we're all dead. So please answer my question."

"Oh." Finally, I understood. Vampires had a need for secrecy, in case that vampire police force that I couldn't quite remember the name of came to dispose of them. "Don't worry about it; all I did was feed off a squirrel," I told them.

"You willingly drank off an animal?" Michael asked, puzzled. I noticed that all his fingers were back in place. I also noticed that Tyson no longer seemed to be in sight.

"Well, yes," I answered. "Is that unusual? I mean, would you drink off of humans?" I laughed. "Since you don't seem to be normal vampires fresh out of literature, I would assume that your diet would be different as well."

"Most vampires do drink off humans," Kim said bluntly. "You wouldn't believe how hard it is to live off animal blood only. I've tried." She shuddered a little, and then got a faraway look in her eyes. I sensed that she was remembering something.

"But wouldn't people _notice_?" I asked, wondering how you could find a corpse with no blood left and not make the connection, whether you knew vampires existed or not.

"Do you really think humans are _that_ observant?" Michael asked me. "They never notice anything. Besides, we're very careful. We usually burn the bodies, or bury them after we're finished. You wouldn't believe how many 'mysterious disappearances' are really linked to vampire feedings. But hey, we have to sustain ourselves somehow." He laughed airily, obviously untroubled by the fact that they were all murderers.

But I had to admit to myself that it bothered _me._ I was a vampire now, but I just didn't think I could kill people mindlessly so that _I_ could eat. I supposed that it was my very recent human experience that gave me the aversion to killing them, and I almost hoped that I would get over it soon and make life easier for myself.

"But vampires physically _can_ live on animal blood, right?" I asked, an idea beginning.

"Of course!" Kim answered. "But I _have _tried, and it's not easy at all. Some vampires even live around humans. I don't know how they can stand it. I would have snapped and killed them all. Besides, animal blood tastes disgusting." She made a face.

"It wasn't _that_ bad," I argued. "It just tasted a bit like stale bread." Still, people could live on stale bread if they were hungry enough. I thought that perhaps, for a while at least, I could try living off animal blood until I got over my conscience.

"Are you considering it?" Helen asked, her eyebrows rising higher than I thought possible. "It's not a very normal path for a vampire to take in life, _especially_ not a newborn. Newborns have next to no control, which would make it very hard for them to stick to their diet of animals."

"I think I still have vestiges of human conscience," I said, attempting a weak smile. "I'm just not sure I want to kill people like that."

As if they read each other's minds, Kim, Helen, and Michael shrugged in unison.

"It's not as if they really can notice anything. If you make it quick, they'll never even know they died," Michael said unfeelingly. Helen smiled at him.

"Well said," she complimented him. "Besides, they're not all that intelligent. And they have such short life spans!"

The second thing Helen had said struck a chord in my mind. "Wait, what?" I practically shouted. "How long do we live?"

Kim blinked, and said, "Forever. I'm sorry, we haven't trained any newborns before, so we're not very experienced in answering your questions. But yes, we're immortal."

I groaned and allowed myself to slump to the ground. I held my head between my hands and said, "Wonderful. So not only do I get to kill people, I get to kill them for all eternity! What a happy future." Then I remembered what Helen had said before. "Besides that, humans are perfectly intelligent. Especially keeping in mind that they haven't lived for what, centuries?"

They all nodded in agreement with the last part of my statement. "Yes, a century, more or less," Michael said. "We were all born around the early 1900's. Tyson was actually born around the 1950's, but since he's not here…" his voice faded into the silence.

"Speaking of which," I said after a short silence, "What happened to Tyson? I left, and when I came back he was just gone…"

Helen's eyes hardened fractionally. I almost thought I had imagined it. "We thought it was best for the coven if Tyson left for good. It hasn't been working out for any of us. We've been tolerant since he has nowhere to go, but he was such a negative influence on all of us that we decided it was time for him to leave."

"He was volatile anyway," said Michael dismissively. "It wasn't much of a loss to us, just less manpower. But since you joined our coven, we shouldn't have that problem."

Kim and Helen seemed to agree with him again, and I wondered why. How could they speak so calmly of a friend they had just gotten into a fight with? He had left permanently!

I decided to speak up and voice my feelings. "How can you be so calm about this? Tyson's not coming back," I choked up a little. I hadn't liked Tyson; he had been so condescending. But even so, he had traveled with them for a while, apparently, and their lack of concern for him was beginning to get to me.

"That's right," said Helen pleasantly. "Did you expect him to stay for more than a decade? That's extremely unusual, even in a case like ours."

"A case like yours?" I ventured to say.

"Yes. Michael and I being together, I mean," Helen said coolly. I was starting to realize how much I disliked Helen's distant attitude towards everything, especially things that might have been considered emotional topics.

"Vampires usually match up in pairs. They find their soul mates, I mean," Kim explained to me. "Then, they may find more vampires to form a coven. Usually, though, the coven doesn't last long with its original members. Vampires group together for convenience and protection, not typically because they feel any affection for each other."

I frowned. I couldn't pretend this didn't disturb me. I didn't really want to have the type of life that was lived separately from the rest of the world. I had never liked people who didn't care about anyone other than himself or herself, and I was unwilling to become that type of person.

My thoughts were once again disturbed as the others tensed. In one fluid move, they dropped into crouching positions facing the eastern side of the forest.

I looked over, and spotted what I had missed while thinking deeply: a large coven of about seven was gracefully making their way toward us. Snarls and growls ripped from the chests of the coven around me. Somehow, I didn't feel any inclination to fight this battle, if there was one. I didn't drop to a crouch, but simply watched as the vampires drew nearer and nearer with every agile step.

**AN: **So, cliffy again! This is my Halloween present to you, anyway. I needed _something_ to do while I was waiting in between trick-or-treaters. I was stuck with the job of handing out candy. /


	6. Chapter 6

**AN: **The weekend is really the only time I ever get to write, so that will hopefully be when all updates occur. Thanks for the reviews!

_I didn't drop to a crouch, but simply watched as the vampires drew nearer and nearer with every agile step._

Helen cursed under her breath. "Jasper," she muttered angrily.

The name was of no importance to me. I squinted into the distance, making out the hair color of all the incoming vampires. Three seemed to have blond hair, although two were male and the other female. One had light brown hair that was about shoulder length. Another had bronze hair, and appeared from a distance to be male. The next was extremely tiny, and had short and spiky black hair. Lastly, there was a massive man that had curly, dark hair with them.

Kim growled, staring at the approaching coven, not rising from her crouch. "The nerve of him, coming back now," she said.

Michael simply took a protective stance in front of Helen. "Don't worry. I won't let anything happen," he promised.

Tearing my eyes away, I said, "Wait. You know this coven?"

"Yes," Helen answered without looking at me. "I was once a new vampire that Jasper was ordered to 'dispose of.' Thankfully, I was strong enough to fight him off for a few minutes, then I managed to escape."

"So that's why you hold a grudge against him?" I asked. Perhaps that was the only reason she seemed so averse to this Jasper character, but I sensed that there was something more behind her reasoning.

"No," she stated through clenched teeth. "I'd rather not talk about it, if that's all right with you."

I wondered what had happened to the calm and pleasant Helen that I had met just earlier that day. But I didn't have time to worry about Helen at the moment. My life was turning into a living hell already, and I had only been a vampire for a few days. I was exceptionally confused, and I wished that someone would sit down and explain more about being a vampire to me without any interruptions.

The new coven was a few feet away now. They stood peacefully, without any intention of having to defend themselves.

"Jasper," Helen said, barely audibly, "What are you doing here? You know how I feel about you." This caught me by surprise; what did she mean? Could she and Jasper have had a romantic relationship in the past?

One of the blond males- the taller, more muscular one- answered coolly, "We're not here about you. Alice had a vision about your newest coven member." He nodded to the short, pixie-like woman. She, like Jasper, was absolutely dazzling.

But then it registered in my head that they were talking about _me_. This woman… Alice… had had a _vision_ about me? What kind of vision could he possibly be talking about? Jasper began talking again, so I gave up wondering and simply listened.

"You see, Alice sees the future," he said, looking warmly at her. "She saw that-" he broke off, looking questioningly at me.

"Bella," I answered around a dry throat.

"She saw that Bella would be changed into a vampire in a secluded forest. We were planning on coming to try and prevent the transformation so that she could stay human, but by the time we pinpointed the location, we obviously were too late. So we arrived here in case we were needed to help Bella as a newborn vampire. Alice saw nothing of you. So I apologize for disturbing you." He nodded stiffly at Helen.

"Oh, Jasper," said Alice, tossing her short hair impatiently. "Let us at least introduce ourselves!" She had a high, attractive voice that was very pleasant to listen to.

He sighed, but seemed to give his unspoken consent.

She obviously understood, because she instantly said, "Well, we're the Cullens. I'm Alice." She smiled around at the group enthusiastically.

The blond woman, seeming to sense that she would be forced to introduce herself, said shortly, "I'm Rosalie." She inclined her head regally. I examined her more closely. She was absolutely gorgeous. Her figure was striking, and her face was beautiful in all aspects. She had to be the most appealing creature I had ever seen.

Her husband, I assumed, was standing next to her. He was the biggest of the coven. "I'm Emmett," he said, his eyes bright with excitement. "It's too bad that the vampire who changed you didn't stick around longer. It would have been fun getting rid of him." I smiled at what I took to be normal, aggressive male behavior.

The last blond male was standing with the caramel-haired woman. They were both kind looking, and of course, angelic. Something in the way they were together made me think that they were also married. "I'm Carlisle," the man said softly, "And this is Esme." He indicated his companion.

"It's very nice to meet you," Esme said sincerely to us all in soft tones.

The last person to introduce himself was the boy with bronze hair. He seemed younger than the rest, but was by far the most stunning male. He had a finely chiseled face, with skin paler than death, of course. He was like a god.

However, it was examining his face carefully that I noticed something odd that they all had in common. None of them had the blood-red eyes of a vampire. They all had eyes that seemed to be made of liquid gold. I wondered briefly whether they were wearing contacts.

However, the boy's voice broke through my preoccupation. It was like velvet as he said, "Hello. My name is Edward."

Kim spoke up, saying, "Let me introduce my coven. I'm Kim, first of all. The two over there are Michael and Helen, and you already know Bella."

"I see that you don't hunt humans," Helen observed dryly. "That's a big change for you, Jasper. Last I remember, you were a ruthless killer."

Jasper seemed to deflate before her eyes. "No. Not ruthless," he corrected her quietly. "I had a conscience. I just didn't understand what was making me so unhappy. I found out that it was all the killing." Helen merely raised her eyebrows.

Not understanding at all, I interrupted, "Wait. You don't hunt humans? Does that have something to do with your eyes?"

Edward looked directly at me and answered harshly, "No, we try to retain our essential humanity and hunt animals. As for our eyes, they are this color only if we hunt animals. If we switch to a human diet, they turn red again."

Helen sneered at the insinuation that she and her coven were not human, but made no comment.

I, meanwhile, thought it over. Could this have something to do with my inclination earlier to hunt that squirrel? I couldn't keep my suspicions to myself any longer, so I blurted out, "Does that mean I have a… conscience too?"

The Cullens, for the most part, looked confused. Rosalie, however, looked like she couldn't care less. Edward seemed like he understood what was going on. But how could he?

My coven understood what I meant, and Kim said, "It's possible. The animal couldn't possibly have tasted good, though." She wrinkled her nose.

"It didn't taste _bad_," I stated. "If I had to compare it to something, I would say that it was like eating a stale cracker. It tastes odd, but not entirely unpleasant."

"Could you tell us exactly what happened?" Carlisle asked in his light voice.

As Helen explained, most of the family concentrated on what she was saying. All except Rosalie, who simply looked at me condescendingly.

"That's very interesting," Carlisle said when she was finished. He addressed me, saying, "Bella, would you be very averse to killing humans?"

I thought it about it for a few minutes. "I think so," I said finally. "I was just human recently, and I'm pretty sure I don't want to kill anybody. It could have been me, easily. It almost was."

Carlisle nodded understandingly, and said, "May I have a few moments with my family?" My coven nodded their agreement, and in the blink of an eye, the Cullens were gone.

An irrational fear that they had used this as an excuse to get away from us gripped me. For some reason, I felt drawn to the Cullens, and I didn't want them to leave, regardless of the fact that I didn't know them at all.

My fear was proved wrong as they reappeared from the trees a few minutes later. Kim, Helen, Michael, and I had simply waited in silence.

Carlisle approached us and said, "We came to a group decision, Bella. It seems like you are willing to comply with our diet, and most of us agreed that you should have the opportunity to join our family if you wished to."

I didn't miss the 'most of us' that Carlisle had slipped in, and I thought I knew exactly who hadn't wanted me to join the Cullens. I glanced around, but Rosalie didn't seem to be with them anymore.

Misinterpreting my silence, Alice put in, "It's okay if you don't want to, you know." I heard her mutter to Jasper in a low voice, "She will eventually, though. I can see it." I had forgotten that she could see the future.

Trusting Alice, and my original judgment of the idea, I said, "I would be delighted to join your family. Thank you very much for the offer." I decided that this diet was something I wanted to try.

Alice grinned so widely I thought her face would split at the ends, and squealed, "Yay! I knew this would happen!"

"If you always know, then how can you possibly be excited every time?" Edward asked in an exasperated voice. Apparently they'd had this conversation before.

"It's just such a happy thing!" Alice protested. "It's not like we get a new Cullen every day, you know."

Carlisle smiled good-naturedly at their squabble, and turned to me. "Welcome to the family," he said. He held out his hand warmly, and I shook it.

Esme came over and swept me up in a hug. Alice did the same, although a little less gently then Esme had. Emmett just grinned hugely at me, looking like an overgrown puppy.

Kim pursed her lips, saying, "It's much too bad you couldn't stay with us, but to each her own. I hope you are happy with your new… coven." She did look faintly regretful, and I took her at her word.

Helen, however, said, "Yes, she would have been a useful asset to our coven. We could have used the extra manpower since Tyson left." I realized that she was only sorry I was leaving because they would be losing additional protection.

I set my lips in a tight line and looked anywhere but Helen. My eyes landed on Edward. He was watching me intently. As we made eye contact, I felt helplessly drawn into his gaze. I couldn't look away, and I didn't want to look away. His eyes seemed to glow, and with great effort I managed to blink and look away from him.

At the suggestion of Carlisle, I told Kim, Helen, and Michael goodbye. I didn't feel attached to them anyway. After all, vampires pair up for convenience.

"Come on!" sang Alice. "I absolutely can't wait to show you around our house. And it'll be great to have a shopping buddy other than Rose." She chattered on about life in the future.

Internally, I groaned. Shopping is definitely not what I was made for. But apart from that, life with the Cullens was looking fairly appealing to me. It sounded like they lived a civilized life as more of a family than a coven. And I knew that was what I wanted.

**AN: **That almost sounds like the end of the story, doesn't it? But don't spaz out; it's not. Edward hasn't even really come into play yet, and I'd like to explore more of Bella's newborn life around humans. Oh, and Bella's power, too. ;)


	7. Chapter 7

**AN: **Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been on a sort of block for a couple of days. This chapter is just a short little filler, but it's necessary.

By the time we neared wherever the Cullens' house might be, Alice was practically squealing in excitement. Personally, I couldn't understand what the big deal was. I was excited too, but I didn't feel like this was absolutely life changing. It was a house.

I had been virtually silent the whole car ride. I'd discovered that interrupted Alice's raving was not a good idea. Finally, she poked me, saying, "Okay, you can talk now."

Internally, I rolled my eyes at her. But taking the opportunity, I said, "Where is it that you live, exactly?" I didn't recall them ever telling me.

"Oh, at the moment we live in this cute little town called Forks!" said Alice, her eyes bright. "It's in western Washington State."

I felt myself changing color. I suddenly felt like I might possibly throw up, even if I was a vampire.

"What's wrong, Bella?" Jasper asked me, leaning over the back of the seat. "You look pretty sick."

"My- father lives in Forks," I managed to choke out. "He absolutely cannot see me as a vampire. He would notice! I think he would also wonder why I'm with you and not Renee, my mother."

Edward, who was sitting in front of me, closed his eyes in what I could only assume was frustration. "Well, that complicates things a bit," he said.

"I really don't want to make you move or anything," I said hesitantly. "I can always strike out on my own if I need to."

"No!" Edward said harshly, his eyes flying open. "That's not necessary. We can figure something out."

I looked over at Alice, who hadn't said anything yet, surprisingly enough. She was twisting her fingers. It was funny, but she looked almost nervous. She looked up, seeing that I was watching her.

"I wanted a shopping partner," she said in a small voice. "And I can already see that you won't be allowed outside."

"Alice, really," said Carlisle from the front, reasonably. "You wouldn't have been able to use Bella as a shopping partner anyway. The bloodlust would be too much for her as a newborn. So really, the fact that her father lives in town works out well. She'll just have to stay in the house for a while."

Alice groaned and said, "I'm supposed to be the psychic around here! I guess I haven't been paying enough attention to see much."

"It's fine, Alice," Jasper interrupted. For some reason, I felt soothed although Jasper hadn't been talking to me.

"That's better," said Edward, sounding satisfied. I couldn't imagine why he was being so controlling about me. I was actually starting to dislike him a little bit. Sure, he was gorgeous, but he seemed arrogant.

The rest of the drive was spent in silence. When we arrived in Forks, I couldn't help but feel a sense of impending doom. The familiar humid air and drizzling rain was intimidating now that I was seeing it through a different perspective.

"What are the chances," I muttered, shaking my head.

"Actually, it's very likely for us to be somewhere like Forks," Alice explained, walking up behind me. "I'm not sure you noticed, but when we get into the sun… well, you'll see sometime. Let's just say that we don't want humans seeing us in sunlight. So Forks is the perfect place for us."

"But why would you _want_ to live here?" I asked, wrinkling my nose. "It's so gloomy, depressing, and small-town."

"Perfect for us, again," said Alice. "We don't want to draw a lot of attention to ourselves, so a small town can be good for that. And I already said that the cloud cover is what we need."

"But wouldn't you get _more_ attention in a small town?" I wondered aloud. "I mean, you'd be basically the center of attention when you moved here."

"Yes, but if we appear standoffish to the children at school, then they'll usually learn to leave us alone," Alice replied.

"Wait, wait, wait," I interrupted. "You mean you actually go to school?" Ugh. I thought I was getting out of it.

"Yes," Alice said, smiling. "We've been going to school for pretty much our whole lives. Which is a _long_ time, believe me."

"You're saying that we're doomed to school for all of eternity?" I practically shouted.

Edward, passing by us, had an unreadable expression on his face. It almost seemed to be sad, but there was no way I could tell for sure.

"Yes," said Alice softly. "I'm sorry this ever happened to you. But hopefully you'll get used to it."

"I hope so too, really," I answered, somewhat grimly. I felt like I was in a rut of depression. Suddenly, this life didn't seem so great to me. Honestly, what were the chances that all the vampires that got changed were beautiful? It wasn't fair at all. I certainly was plain enough.

Alice, over her fit of compassion already, pulled me along toward the house with one hand. "You'll _love_ it, I know it already," she enthused.

Once we were in sight of the house, my jaw dropped. Their house was the most gorgeous place I had ever seen. It was tall, white, and stately. It had an air of grace about it, and I was sure the rest of the house would be the same way.

"Isn't it pretty?" Alice asked me. I could only nod dumbly. She took advantage of my awe to drag me inside the house without a second thought.

Inside, it was spacious and airy. The walls were painted light colors. But the most wonderful thing of all was that the whole back wall had been taken out and replaced by an enormous window.

"How many stories does that cover?" I asked Alice, looking out into the forest beyond.

"Oh, it covers all of them," she said assuredly. "Esme is a very good interior designer, you know."

"She _did_ this?" I asked. I was sure my eyes were popping out of my head. "This is the most amazing thing I've ever seen!"

"Thank you," said a musical voice from behind. I turned in surprise. Esme, of course, was standing behind me. I wondered briefly how I hadn't heard her coming.

Suddenly, Alice got a blank look on her face. She appeared to be staring off into space. This continued for a few minutes until Esme, who was watching, put her hand lightly on Alice's arm. "What did you see, dear?" she asked lightly.

Alice blinked vigorously and said, "I saw Charlie meeting Bella. That's not good."

"How do you know his name?" I asked, rather stupidly.

Alice shot me a withering look. "We live in a small town, remember? Anyway, you _really _need to stay in this house, Bella. Do you understand that? You can only leave under the supervision of one of us. First of all, we don't want you to be seen by people who might know you. Secondly, we don't want you to kill all the townsfolk and give the werewolves a good reason to attack us."

"There are _werewolves_?" I shrieked. "Next you're going to tell me that there are witches too! This is absolutely ridiculous!"

"Calm down, Bella," said Alice sourly. "The werewolves are no threat unless we hurt a human."

"Well I'm _sorry_, Alice, but I sort of didn't realize that mythical creatures existed until a couple of days ago!" I stomped outside, away from Alice. This was an unusual fit of temper for me.

I simply stared out into the forest surrounding the house for a while. I didn't know how long it was. Maybe minutes, maybe it was even hours.

Soon, Alice came dancing onto the front porch. She dropped down beside me. "I'm sorry Bella," she told me sincerely. "I shouldn't have been so sharp with you earlier. My nerves are really getting on edge from all these visions that foretell problems for our family.

"It's okay, Alice," I mumbled. "I'm sorry I freaked out. This is all pretty new and weird for me."

She laughed shortly and said, "No, it's fine, Bella. Any normal person would be expected to react like that."

"I'm not exactly a normal person anymore," I said, laughing. She laughed too, and I knew that we were friends again. Sisters, actually.

"What's with Edward, anyway?" I asked, breaking the companionable silence that we had been holding for a few minutes. "He seems like… I don't know; he seems like he doesn't like anybody and doesn't think that he needs to."

Alice sighed heavily. "Edward is different. I feel sorry for him most of the time because we're all in couples except for him… and now you." She looked at me, a speculative look coming into her eyes.

"No way, Alice," I said, knowing exactly what she was thinking. "I would never even _consider_ dating Edward. Why would he want to, anyway? He acts like he doesn't need anyone but himself."

"Come on, Bella," Alice whined. "At least give it a try. Maybe somebody else is what he needs. It would make him less drab occasionally."

"No," I said firmly. "I'm not going to do it, Alice. There's no way you can convince me at all."

"Oh, I wouldn't say that if I were you," said Alice, smiling in a way that I found quite nasty. She got up and walked away.

Edward himself walked up behind me and said, "She'll never give it up now. Alice is very stubborn and determined in her way. She's also very good at plotting and creating guilt trips. So be careful." He winked and went into the house.

I blinked a couple of times in surprise. Wait. Had Edward just talked to me like I was actually a human being? Maybe there was some hope for him after all.

I stood up and made my way into the house. Night was falling quickly, and I was surprised that I wasn't feeling tired yet. I sat on the couch and watched Emmett and Jasper battle each other on some video game, exchanging banter the whole time.

A few hours later, I couldn't take it anymore. "Aren't any of you going to bed before midnight?" I burst out.

They all looked around at me, surprised. Then, realization seemed to dawn on their faces. Emmett began to laugh extremely hard.

"It's not funny, Emmett," Esme scolded. "She honestly doesn't know." Then, addressing me, she said, "Bella, honey, vampires don't sleep." She watched my face carefully.

"Oh," I said, feeling foolish. "Well, sorry for asking." I laughed internally at myself. I hoped the next few days wouldn't be like this.

Emmett and Jasper went back to playing their game, and everything was seemingly back in order when we heard a loud siren coming up. Carlisle frowned in concentration, trying to hear where the vehicle was headed.

Everybody's eyes widened simultaneously as they realized that the sirens were headed straight towards the house.

Carlisle began spitting out orders. "Everybody into the forest as quickly as possible. Go as far as you can until you hear the sirens stop at the house. Make absolutely no noise and don't move until you hear me whistle!"

**AN:** I surprised myself with the end little bit. I hope you enjoy the cliffy. Hehe. -is evil-

Don't kill me in your reviews, please. I didn't mean it!


	8. Chapter 8

**AN: **I know, I know. I'm evil for leaving you on that cliffy. I've heard it. xD

But I'm making it up to you with such a quick update. Don't expect me to do it again; I had time to kill. So, enjoy. Or not.

Alice grabbed my hand, and dragged me out the back door. "Time to test out those legs," she said with a grin. I don't know how she managed to make me feel so terrified with that smile.

With that, we started running. We went as fast as bullets, speeding through the forest smoothly. The wind blew my hair and pushed against my face as we dashed away from the sirens that could expose me.

Then, I was jerked back to reality with a tug on my hand as we came to a skidding halt. Alice motioned for me to duck behind the bushes and signaled for silence. I held my breath and held still, which was surprisingly easy.

I wasn't sure how long we stayed there, but no whistle blew. There was complete and total silence until the sound of crunching footsteps rang loudly through the night air.

An all-too-familiar voice barked out, "Search the forest for them. Their cars are still here; I'm sure they haven't left yet." I almost died. Charlie was here. If he found me, I really would die, immortal or not.

Then their scent hit me. The wind began to shift my way, blowing the wonderful, flowery, mouthwatering scent of their blood into my nostrils. Without my consent, I started breathing in. Yet again, I felt something else in me take over. I crouched down, more than ready to hunt.

Beside me, Alice's eyes widened in fear. She grabbed me around the waist from behind, pinning my arms down and trying as hard as she could to restrain me. "No, Bella!" she whisper-shouted.

But for me, it was much too late. I was thirsty, and nothing could stop me. I ripped away from Alice, and without another thought, I was in front of the nearest human.

Dimly, in the back of my mind, I registered that I knew this human. Something nagged at me, telling me that I needed to stop, that there was something different about this person. But the part of me in control ignored it thoroughly. All that mattered was that I was thirsty.

I crouched, and stared Charlie straight in the eye. He looked absolutely petrified and he said, "Bella? Is that you? What are you doing here?"

I reminded myself that this human was simply prey, and there was no reason to let him live. He was simply an inconvenience to me. I snarled, and pounced. His neck was broken with one simple snap, and without a pause to think, I was drinking his blood.

This human's blood was possibly the most delicious thing I had ever tasted. It was rich and warm, flowing over my tongue and down my throat. When it was gone, I broke off suddenly, wishing that my slice of heaven had not just ended.

Alice, who had been watching helplessly from the bushes, came up to me and said, "Bella! Don't worry about it; it's fine…" her hands fluttered around, and she seemed as if she was in indecision.

Suddenly, another shout burst through the calm night air. "Come on, men. They're not here; let's pack up and leave."

By now, the gravity of what I had just done was catching up to me. I had just killed my own father. I dropped to the ground, putting my head in my hands, ashamed. I began to sob, but no tears fell from my eyes. "He's dead," I choked out.

Alice was watching me sorrowfully. "I'm sorry, Bella," she whispered. "I would have stopped you, but you're stronger than me. I couldn't do anything."

A whistle reverberated through the forest, and she picked me up with ease. I turned my face away from her and simply kept sobbing. Alice ran easily back to the house, where she deposited me on the couch.

Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Jasper, Rosalie, and Emmett were already there. Everyone except Edward was watching me, confused. Edward simply looked at me with sympathy. Jasper walked over to Alice and placed his hand on her arm.

"What happened, Alice?" Carlisle asked in his calm way. "We didn't hear anything from where we were."

"Bella met Charlie," Alice explained quietly.

There was a low intake of breath from the watching audience. "Oh no," Esme said sadly, shaking her head.

"She couldn't control herself with a human so close," said Alice, watching me warily. "We'd better watch her. She's plotting."

"Oh dear," Esme said, and she walked over to me and placed her hands on my shoulders comfortingly. "I know there's nothing I can say that will make you feel better."

I nodded at her, hoping that she could sense my appreciation. She was absolutely right. Nothing she or anyone else could say anything that would relieve my absolute desolation at the murder of my father. Even worse, murder committed by me.

I sped up to the room I knew that Alice had prepared for me. It was a light red color, with gorgeous mahogany furniture. There was a dark tan couch in the corner of the room, and I lay face down on it, closing my eyes and trying to let myself drift.

After what was probably a few hours, I heard light footsteps approaching my room. I didn't bother looking up. It was probably Alice, coming to apologize again, which I really didn't need at the moment.

There was a knock at the door, and Edward asked, "Bella, may I come in?" This was such a surprise that I sat up immediately.

"Of course," I replied, my voice rising in pitch in surprise.

The door opened, and he stepped in, looking unbelievably gorgeous, as usual. For some reason, he didn't seem as arrogant now. He seemed more compassionate and sympathetic. This was definitely going to be about the capital crime I had just committed.

He hesitated for a second, and then sat fluidly on the floor. "I came to talk to you about Charlie," he said. I raised my eyebrows expectantly.

"Well," he sighed in a velvety voice, "You see, when I was still a fairly new vampire, I did much worse than you. I went away for a while and struck out on my own. I was tired of the vegetarian life. So I began to hunt humans, but selectively. I chose humans that were criminals, or were considering it. I figured that if I was saving human lives and taking only criminal ones, then I would not be committing such an awful sin. Obviously, I was wrong, and I came to realize it. But I understand how you are feeling right now, truly."

I felt grateful to him for sharing his story with me, but I said, "Well, at least none of them were _related_ to you. I just murdered my own father!"

He nodded, and I could see the sorrow in his eyes as well. "You're right. But you're a newborn, and it can only be expected that you slip up. It just so happened that you met humans before you were ready."

"That doesn't excuse it," I snapped at him. I thought back to his story a few minutes ago and said slowly, "Wait a second. You said that you hunted humans that were considering being criminals? How would you know that? Can you see the future too?"

He sighed and said, "Well, you certainly have a right to know. The fact of it is that I can read minds. Although this isn't exactly how I had planned on telling you."

Uh-oh. "So you know what I'm thinking right now?" I asked hesitantly.

A slightly frustrated look crossed his face, and he said shortly, "No." He must have seen the relief on my face, because his face softened, and he said, "Yet another reason I find you so intriguing."

I blinked. "Hold on a second," I said, clarifying. "_I'm_ intriguing? Did you actually just say that? I'm possibly the most uninteresting person in the world."

"Not in my opinion," he disagreed. "I know absolutely nothing about you. I just find you interesting."

"I found you interesting as well," I admitted. "But then I came to the conclusion that you were arrogant. I'm not so sure that's true now."

He smiled ruefully and said, "Maybe I was," he said. "But I changed my mind. I didn't want to be so distant anymore."

"I'd rather you not be," I said, surprising myself. "I think that as brother and sister, we should know more about each other. Besides, what else is there to do at night?"

He laughed and said, "That's true." He began to tell me about himself, and his history. It was actually very interesting, although I found it hard to wrap my mind around the concept that Edward was actually a hundred years old.

That began a whole new train of thought for me as I began to compare our age differences. I shook my head very slightly, trying to clear those kinds of thoughts out of my head. I glanced at Edward. He was still talking expressively, his golden eyes warm as he watched me. I was extremely glad that he couldn't read my thoughts, for whatever reason.

The next morning, my voice was slightly hoarse from detailing my entire life for Edward, who had insisted upon asking me a thousand questions about the most unimportant things in the world. "Why does it matter?" I asked him, slightly aggravated.

He opened his mouth to reply, when another pair of feet came up to the door. Without bothering to knock, Alice burst in. "I knew it!" she sang. "I saw this yesterday, but I didn't tell you!" She looked at me meaningfully.

I rolled my eyes at the exact same moment Edward did. "Alice, your plan is utterly ridiculous," he said. "How do you propose to force two people to fall in love?"

"I'm not going to force you," she said, smiling devilishly. "I'm just going to tweak the circumstances a bit and let it happen on its own. I mean; it's already started!"

If I had been able to, I would have been blushing furiously. "Alice!" I said. "Would you please just go away?"

"Of course not!" she said. "First I want to know what you two have been doing all night."

"Alice, _go away_," I said sharply. I wasn't focusing on anything except how much I wanted Alice to leave. Then a strange thing happened. I felt slightly dizzy, although I hadn't been doing anything dizzying. But the strangest thing of all was that Alice disappeared. She would never have done that on her own.

Edward, too, looked extremely puzzled. "Where…" he began, but never got to finish.

"BELLA!" shouted Alice, dashing back up the stairs. "How did you _do_ that?"

"I didn't do anything," I said, puzzled. "I was just sitting here the whole time. What are you blaming me for, anyway?"

She looked at me with one eyebrow raised expectantly. "Come on, Bella. One minute I was here, and the next I found myself walking away. But I never wanted to, trust me."

"Maybe it's her power manifesting itself!" said Edward excitedly. He was practically sparkling. I raised my eyebrows at him; I couldn't understand why he was getting so excited about it.

"Oh!" Alice exclaimed. "Bella, try and make that couch lift off the ground. Maybe you have telekinesis!"

I concentrated carefully on the couch, and thought about how much I wanted it to levitate itself. Nothing happened, and Alice looked disappointed.

"Maybe it's not telekinesis," she said. Then, brightening up, she said, "Try and make Edward do something!" Edward's eyes widened in the extreme, and he looked afraid for his life.

I smirked at him, and thought about how much I wanted him to stand on his head. To my extreme surprise, he suddenly was upside-down, still with a shocked look on his face. I began to laugh hysterically.

"There we are! Your power must have something to do with people, or living things, maybe," Alice mused. "You can obviously bend them to your will. That's very interesting."

My eyes brightened up at the prospect. I was definitely going to enjoy myself with this power.

**AN: **Wow, I must really love you guys. Not even a cliffy! Anyway, even I was surprised when Bella killed Charlie. -sobsob- Sorry about that.


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: Ahaha. I know that you also hate me for killing Charlie. Well, I'm not sorry anymore. It was interesting, right? So, anyway, this chapter is probably going to be pretty much filler, but I'll try to keep it interesting.**

"Oh, Carlisle!" Alice sang from the top of the stairs. Such a loud voice wasn't really necessary, since we all had extremely sensitive hearing, but it was apparent that Alice enjoyed being overly boisterous.

Carlisle made his way to the bottom of the stairs and stood looking at us questioningly. "Yes, Alice?"

"We just found out that Bella has a power!" she said brightly. "Isn't that exciting?"

Carlisle's eyes widened. "That's very rare," he said to me. "It's highly unusual that all of us had powers before, but having another vampire with a special talent join us is simply extraordinary. May I ask what you can do?"

"Um, sure," I said, my voice rising an octave in nervousness. "Well, apparently I can manipulate people."

Carlisle raised an eyebrow. "Is it anything like Jasper's power?" he asked. His words seemed to be directed at Alice, so I stayed silent.

"Nope," Alice answered. "When she says manipulate, she really means it. She can make people physically do things. I'm not sure if she can shift emotion or not."

"Jasper can shift emotion?" I interrupted her. "What does that mean, exactly?

Her words flowing together, she answered me quickly, "Jasper basically can control the emotions of people around him. If you were feeling anxious, he could make you relax, for instance."

"Hmm," I said, speculating. "I wonder…" I directed my focus onto Alice, hoping that this would work. I concentrated, trying to change her emotions from bright and chipper to depressed and gloomy. It would be the first time in her long life if I managed it.

However, nothing happened. I eventually gave up, as Alice simply looked as vibrant and joyous as usual. "Darn," I muttered under my breath.

The one downside to living in a house full of people with super-sensitive hearing is that they can hear just about _everything_ you say.

"What were you trying to do?" Alice asked me suspiciously. She eyed me for a moment.

"Well, I was trying to depress you, actually," I admitted. "I thought that maybe you could use a little calming down. But obviously it didn't work."

She raised an eyebrow at me, and from further behind us I heard a loud cough. I jerked my head back, surprised. I saw Edward, still sitting in his room, looking like he was trying to suppress laughter. I glared at him.

"Anyway, Bella, you have to show Carlisle!" Alice told me. "Actually, maybe we should bring the whole family together for a demonstration…"

"No, Alice!" I replied hastily. "Just showing Carlisle is fine. I'm sure they'll all take his word for it."

She snorted, but agreed. "All right, but you'll have to show them eventually. They'll be curious. Especially Emmett."

I rolled my eyes at her, but didn't comment. I was too busy focusing on Alice. I knew that I wanted her to _stop_ _talking_ and let me show Carlisle my power like she had told me to in the first place.

Suddenly, her mouth snapped shut, and she glared at me wordlessly. I smirked at her. Then I decided that it might be amusing to watch her play air guitar, so I forced her to do that.

Carlisle exhaled in amazement. "That is really amazing," he commented. "It's unusual as well."

I heard soft footsteps behind me, and Edward appeared at my shoulder. "Now that's something I never thought I would see Alice doing. At least, not while she was trying to kill someone with her eyes."

I glanced back at Alice unwillingly, not really wanting to stop looking at Edward. Unsurprisingly, she was still glaring daggers at me.

"Yes, I suppose that looks a bit forced," I said lightly. I lifted an eyebrow at her, and she began to nod her head furiously in time with the music that wasn't playing.

Edward laughed at her genuinely, and in between nods, Alice tried to ask him a question with her eyes. Then I remembered that Edward could read minds, and that she probably _was_ asking him a question.

Carlisle too was looking at Edward sharply. Were they noticing something that I was missing? Other than the fact that Edward had been a jerk to me when I first had gotten to Forks, of course.

I let Alice stop, finally, and the second she did, she began, "Edward…"

He cut her off abruptly. "No, Alice. We're not discussing this, especially right now. _Maybe_ later. _Maybe_."

I watched the whole scene with confused eyes. What could they possibly be talking about? It didn't seem right to exclude me, and Carlisle as well, out of the conversation as if we weren't standing there.

Alice shot me a playfully venomous glare and said ominously, "I can see that I will deal with _you_ later. Go have some father-daughter bonding time or something. Edward and I have unfinished business."

At the mention of father-daughter, I felt sobs rising in my throat. This was about the time, if I had been human, where I would have started tearing up. "Charlie…" I choked out.

Alice's whole expression changed. Her eyes suddenly grew wide and distressed. "I'm _so, so, so_ sorry, Bella!" she cried. "I swear that's not what I meant; I was talking about Carlisle! I never should have brought that up; why can't I just think before I speak?"

"It's fine, Alice," I muttered quietly, knowing she would hear me. I couldn't trust my voice to be smooth at any louder of a pitch than this.

Edward watched me with an unfathomable expression. Carlisle looked sorrowful.

"Of course it's not, Bella!" Alice said, still stricken. "Maybe you should have some alone time…"

"We all make mistakes, Bella," Carlisle said softly. "Even the best of us. It was tragic the way it turned out, but that's exactly the reason we're vegetarians."

"Even if it was just a mistake, I still _killed_ him, Carlisle!" I wailed. I was completely beyond all consolation and reason by this point. I put my head between my hands, trying to block out the images that were running through my head. A dark forest… Charlie's terrified face… I couldn't take it anymore

"I want to kill _myself_ right now!" I shouted, not caring what my new family thought of this statement.

I heard Edward sigh and say, "Back to the drawing board." He took a breath and said, "Bella. Please calm down. You were doing so well before. And please believe me when I say that this happens to all of us. We can't help who we are, Bella, but we can try and retain our essential goodness."

I calmed down a tiny bit at the soothing sound of his voice, but I refused to be comforted. "Just go away! None of you are helping!" I slammed the door behind me as I stomped out into the forest.

I sat near the edge of the forest, staring off at the way the light fell across the leaves. I didn't want to think about what had happened yesterday, but I couldn't help it. It was haunting me.

_No_, I told myself firmly. _You're not going to think about that. Okay, you're guilty. Been there, done that. Keep your head clear._

I stared unseeingly into the trees. I watched the light play across the clouds as the sky got steadily darker. When the sky above me was a rosy pink color, I came back to myself enough to wonder why someone hadn't come out here by now to chastise me about losing my grip again. I supposed that Carlisle had probably told the others to leave me alone, and I was extraordinarily grateful for it.

I began to think of my previous life; my human life, with shades of regret. How simple life was when my only care was my homework or my grades. I wished that this had never happened to me. Why did Addison have to pick _me_ to drink from? It didn't seem fair. Why had fate thrown us together like that?

I knew one thing now: I would rather be dead than a vampire in this awful new world. I hadn't even thought that vampires existed, and I would rather have had it stay that way.

Having said this, I began to consider suicide. Would it be so hard to kill myself? I stroked my own arm absentmindedly. It was hard as a stone, but even a stone will break if you drop it from high enough. I wondered how high I would have to jump to manage to shatter myself. Then I wondered if it was even possible. How easy would it be to kill myself?

Then, to my complete and horrible surprise, a voice said from behind me, "I see what you're considering, Bella. And let me just say that it won't work. The only thing you'll manage is to expose us all to the world."

I shut my eyes in absolute horror. "Alice," I groaned. Of course Alice would have seen my attempt to kill myself. I hadn't exactly factored her into my plans.

Misinterpreting my meaning, she argued, "It's true, Bella! You can't kill yourself unless you get another vampire to do it for you. And trust me, none of us will even consider it for an instant."

"That's not what I meant, Alice. Why can't you just let me? I'm miserable here! I really hate being a vampire, and I would do just about anything to become human again. But it's not possible." I said the last sentence softly, almost to myself.

"Being a vampire isn't so awful, Bella," Alice told me quietly. "You just need to get past the first couple of years and it's all fine."

"Getting past the first couple of _days_ hasn't been easy, Alice!" I shrieked. "None of you exactly had to deal with the burden of killing your own family member, did you? I have the worst luck in the world." I dropped my face into my hands and closed my eyes, willing this to have all been a dream. Perhaps in a moment I would wake up in my own bed, and none of this ever would have happened.

I looked up at her again, and saw that she was watching me with a much softer expression than before. "That's true, Bella," she said. "None of us had to deal with that. But we all have our own struggles. For example, Rosalie wishes that she were human right along with you."

My interest was piqued in spite of myself. "Why exactly does she want to be human?" I asked somewhat cautiously.

"Well… Alice looked a little discomforted, but she continued anyway, "You see, she was on the brink of death when she was changed. She's never really gotten over the parts of human life that she's missing. For example, she'll miss having children. That's what she's always wanted."

Another wave of gloom settled over me. "Vampires can't have children?" I asked sadly.

"No," Alice answered carefully. "But we do live forever, so there's lots of time to see the world. And on the plus side, you never have to have a period again!" she said desperately, obviously trying to lighten the mood.

I relented and smiled slightly. I saw the relief that was evident on her face, and that made me smile even more. "Way to be obvious, Alice," I teased her.

She grinned and winked at me. "Sorry, but only my hilarious sense of humor could save you from the depths of depression right then. I see all." She tapped her head knowingly.

I rolled my eyes at her, but I truly did feel slightly lifted by the small exchange Alice and I had had. "So how long do you think it will be before I can get out of the house?" I asked, changing the subject.

"Well, like I said before, probably about a year or so, but maybe more than that. You'll have to perfect your control around humans. It won't be easy; in fact you'll probably become extremely frustrated. Since you have an innate conscience, apparently, it will be a little bit easier since you know that what you're doing is morally right, but the bloodlust essentially takes over. So we'll have to work on that with you."

I considered this, and then nodded. A year seemed like an impossibly long time not to see anyone but my new family, but I didn't know them very well yet. I couldn't really get sick of them until I knew them. Besides, from the size of their house, it was quite apparent that they weren't exactly poverty-stricken. It wasn't like I would be out of things to do there.

Suddenly, Alice's eyes glazed over, and her back stiffened. She looked as if she were no longer there. I watched her in complete surprise until she relaxed and said confusedly, "I don't understand."

"What don't you understand, Alice?" I prodded gently. I would get around to asking her what had just happened in a moment.

"I just had a vision," she explained to me, "and the funny thing was, I couldn't _see_ anything. That's never happened before. But I saw us walking out of the house - you included - and then my sight suddenly goes dark."

"Maybe we should report it to Carlisle," I responded uncertainly. Carlisle was obviously the leader of the family; he would be the most likely to know what to do.

"Yes," Alice decided at once. "He should know. Everyone else should know, too. We'd better go as quickly as possible. Hurry, Bella!" With a sudden burst of enthusiasm, she sped off, a sliver of white against the brown trees.

I grinned in anticipation of more running, which was actually very pleasant, and followed her, eventually catching up and matching her speed.

**AN: I know, not the best ending. It was kind of a half-cliffy. You probably already know what's going to happen. The next chapter will be **_**very**_** interesting for you to read.**


	10. Chapter 10

**AN: Thanks to the four people that reviewed. xD But anyway, have a merry Christmas.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, or any of the characters… etc.**

We skidded to graceful halts in front of the house and then changed direction, sliding through the front door and into the hall.

"Carlisle!" Alice called, her voice exhilarated. "We may have a problem. Could-" But he had already appeared in front of us.

"What's the problem, Alice?" he asked worriedly. "You saw something, correct?"

"Yes," she answered. "Or rather, I didn't see anything, which is the problem. My vision completely disappeared. That's never happened before, and it's driving me insane!"

"When did this happen?" Carlisle asked with practiced ease. He had probably quizzed Alice about her visions more times than he could count.

"A few minutes ago," she told him, sinking to the floor. "Bella and I ran back so we could tell all of you."

The front door opened slowly, and Alice's head whipped to stare at it. She looked more than a little apprehensive, but her face relaxed when she saw Rosalie and Emmett step through. Rosalie looked a little bemused at their audience, and Emmett seemed nonchalant. However, Emmett must have noticed the tension in the room, because he said immediately, "What's going on?"

Alice took it upon herself to answer. Sighing heavily, she said, "I had a vision." She explained the whole situation to all the family assembled. As she continued on, I heard a brief movement, and looked up the stairs. Edward was there, listening intently to Alice. I caught his eye, and he smiled at me warmly, but said nothing.

"To be honest, I have no idea what that could mean," Carlisle confessed. He looked troubled. I could second the sentiment, since none of us had any idea what this would do to our family.

Edward, speaking up for the first time, said, "Perhaps her vision is dimming. I doubt it, but it's always a possibility."

Carlisle took in his statement, thinking it over. "I think it's more likely to intensify than disappear, though," he pointed out. "Take Aro's power, for instance. His gift is extremely powerful, and he's been alive for a very long time."

"Who's Aro?" I asked, somewhat cautiously. Hopefully there weren't any more vampires in the Cullen family. Our coven was already big enough.

"He's one of the Volturi," Alice said to me before going over to talk to Carlisle. I remembered the Volturi from a previous discussion with one of the family. It almost seemed like every vampire had a power.

I looked over, and found Edward next to me, watching me think curiously. "What are you thinking?" he asked. "I'm used to being able to find out easily."

"Actually, I was thinking that it was kind of odd that all the vampires I've ever heard of have powers. How do you keep it a secret from humans?"

"Not all vampires have powers," Edward told me. "Actually, we're the rare exception. It's extremely unusual to have such a large coven as we do, and it's also rare for said coven to all have special powers."

That was interesting. I wondered how we were different from other vampires - besides the diet, of course - that would make _us_ have powers and the others not. "But you still didn't answer my second question," I persisted. "How do you ever keep your powers hidden?"

"For me especially, it's not easy," he said, grimacing. "I have to make sure I don't accidentally answer a person's thoughts rather than their words. And I have to make sure I can differentiate between what someone says and thinks. It can be very overwhelming at times. But I've gotten good at it."

"So I'm going to have to be very careful," I said, panicking a little. "I mean, I'm going to have to make sure I _never_ force a person to do something that they wouldn't do on a regular day."

"Well, yes," Edward said serenely. "But I can help you with that. I have a better insight into humans' minds than the rest of the world. Besides, you really shouldn't need to manipulate people unless we have a dire need."

"I just hope I'll be able to control it," I worried aloud. "I don't want to accidentally use it and then really regret it afterwards."

"Don't worry about it," he said smoothly, waving my fears away. "It's going to be a while before you can socialize with humans anyway. There's plenty of time for you to practice your gift. You'll have to master it, as well as your thirst."

"Oh yeah, which is absolutely no problem. Piece of cake," I grumbled.

To my surprise, Edward laughed. "You're right," he agreed. "It's not going to be easy. But it's our lot in life, and we're just going to have to try and put up with it. It's really not so awful once you're used to it. The first few years are the worst."

"That's what Alice said," I muttered. "But getting past the first few _days_ isn't easy. Isn't time supposed to pass faster when you're immortal or something like that?"

"It does, actually," Edward said. "But you have to get your internal clock used to not sleeping, and just vampire life in general first. Besides, you've had a lot to think about in the past few days."

Suddenly, we heard multiple pairs of feet padding toward the house. It was a quiet sound, and it almost was like the people approaching had on moccasins. Unconsciously, all of us frowned in concentration at exactly the same time. Edward seemed to be focusing harder than even we were, and I wondered why until I finally managed to figure out that he was listening to the intruders' thoughts.

We all were watching him intently, and when he moved from his still position, I wasn't the only one that jumped in surprise. "Werewolves," he growled, spitting out the word like a curse.

"Why would…" I hesitated, "Why would werewolves even have come here? Alice told me they existed, but I didn't think… that they would take any unreasonable interest in us."

Edward and Alice were scowling heavily. "I must not have told you that these werewolves lived near us," Alice spat. 'I didn't think about it. They must have thought that _we_ were the ones that changed you. We have a treaty - if they leave us alone, we won't hunt humans. Not that we would have anyway," she added.

I felt injured at first when I heard Alice's irritated tone of voice, but I quickly realized that she wasn't angry with _me._ If I had to hazard I guess, I would say that she probably was unhappy that the werewolves were here, and that they had gotten past her sight.

If I hadn't known better, I would have said that Edward really _could _read my mind, as he said next, "I wonder why Alice didn't see this coming?"

"I have _no_ idea," Alice snapped. "It's absolutely infuriating that I'm blind where the werewolves are concerned, though. What if they were planning to attack us? I wouldn't even have realized it! What if they _are_ planning to attack us?"

"We'll fight back," Carlisle said calmly. "I don't wish to begin a conflict, but we may have to defend our own. That, I'm not afraid to do." Everyone fell into a grave silence at his words, partly because they were digesting the magnitude of the situation, but also partly because our unwelcome visitors had arrived.

Emmett and Rosalie were the first out the door, and the rest of us quickly followed. Alice whispered urgently to Edward, "What do they want?"

He shook his head. "You'll find out later," he whispered back. "They're not going to transform back into humans to talk to us. I'll have to be their translator. We have some explaining to do, to say the least."

Alice nodded in what seemed to be understanding. I, however, was extremely confused. "Wait a second," I said sharply. "You mean werewolves can change their form when it's not around the time of the full moon?"

One side of Edward's mouth turned up in a smile, but Alice rolled her eyes at me. "When are you going to figure out that _all_ of those fantasy myths were only semi-true, Bella?" she asked, slightly exasperated. "Werewolves can change form at will. It has nothing to do with the full moon."

"Sorry," I said, a little guiltily. But then I became angrier. "But you know, you don't have to take your anxiety out on me. It isn't exactly my fault I didn't know everything about vampires and werewolves. Actually, I'd rather not know about any of it, but it's much too late to reverse that."

Alice glared at me for a moment, but then her gaze softened. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "You're absolutely right on all counts. Right now we should be focusing on the werewolves."

The trio hurried over to where Carlisle, Esme, Rosalie, and Emmett were all picking their way cautiously toward the most amazing sight I had ever seen.

The beasts sitting on the front lawn were exactly like gigantic wolves. The werewolves were ten in number, but they seemed like more, and were each absolutely _colossal_. The two largest were midnight black and a rusty brown color. The shaggiest was the brown. The rest were all different colors, ranging from chocolate brown to slate gray.

Edward took one look at my reaction and began to laugh. I suspected that it was because my eyes were as wide as soccer balls. However funny that may have been, I didn't think it deserved the three minutes of chuckling that he gave it.

The rest of his family was looking at him strangely, especially when he stopped laughing abruptly and began to nag the others about getting down to business.

Carlisle gestured to the largest wolf, the black one, to begin, and he - or I assumed it was a he - gestured with his nose at me. I felt myself being caught by surprise until I remembered Alice telling me that the wolves thought that the Cullens had changed me.

Edward hurried to explain, "There's no need to try and communicate with us yourselves. I can hear your thoughts, and I will relay them to the rest of my family." The wolf looked a little surprised, but dipped his head in acquiescence.

In an oddly flat, emotionless voice, Edward began, "You have broken the treaty. We can sense that this one is a fresh vampire. Our agreement was that you would not bite any humans, if you remember."

Alice opened her mouth, probably to say something aggressive, but Carlisle cut her off. "Bella is a part of our family now. She is indeed a new vampire, but she was not bitten by one of us. We simply offered to take her in."

In the same detached voice, Edward responded, "Damn it."

I began to snigger at the odd contrast between his words and tone of voice. But then I began to wonder why the werewolves would be so upset about not fighting us. I let my eyes wander over them again, settling on the reddish-brown wolf. He was staring at me intensely with deep brown eyes. I blinked uncertainly, losing my train of thought. Had he been doing this the whole time?

Edward blinked a few times and shook his head like a dog just out of water. "Apparently they were looking forward to 'killing the bloodsuckers,'" he said, using air quotes around the wolf's phrase.

I must have looked a little sickened - I certainly felt it - because Edward misinterpreted it and said, "Don't worry about it. They always have called us that. Besides, we return the favor by calling them dogs. They don't appreciate that too much."

"I was more worrying about the fact that they seem to be so willing to kill us," I said, making a forced attempt at lightheartedness. "Do they consider it a sport? Vampire hunting, perhaps?"

"Yes, a sport of sorts," said Edward. He wasn't smiling anymore. "But it goes the other way, as well. If they put one toe out of line - which, actually, they just did, since they're not really allowed on our land - we would dispose of them quickly."

I made a face, and said, "I'm glad there's so much love in the world. Really, I think it's wonderful."

He gave a half-hearted, tight-lipped smile at my weak attempt at sarcasm. Turning back to the wolves, he said, "Are we done?" There was an affirmative rumble from the pack, and they all began to get up and bound away. The reddish wolf flicked a last glance at me before he, too disappeared.

"It looks like you have a new admirer," Edward said, with a smirk on his face.

"What are you talking about?" I said, too quickly. I was sure he saw through me, because his smirk only widened.

"The wolf that was staring at you all throughout our… negotiation? His name is Jacob. I'd say that he definitely feels a sense of attraction toward you, which is unusual, since werewolves and vampires are natural enemies. But I digress. The point is, you should be glad you couldn't hear his thoughts."

The look of disgust and horror on my face must have been even more amusing than my awe from a few minutes ago, because Edward began to laugh even harder than before. "But I don't even know him!" I protested.

"I got a good look at his mind," he told me, serious again. "And I don't think he's about to give his cause up. _Why_ he would be so determined, though, I cannot fathom." He shook his head and walked away. His shoulders were shaking slightly, and I could have sworn that he was laughing again.

**AN: Haha, you know you liked it. Actually, I'm sure a fair amount of you hated this chapter because true love is screwed up, once again. I just couldn't resist!**

**Anyway, after Christmas I won't have Internet for a few days, so I will be able to work on more chapters, but I can't post them. So have a very merry Christmas (only three days!)**


	11. Chapter 11

**I'm sorry, no updates as promised. I've been fairly busy, and I didn't take my laptop on vacation. Now I'm back in school, so I have a lot less time. But I will try to keep updating as often as time allows.**

I sat in my room with my head in my hands. I mulled over the wolf Jacob's odd attraction to me, and I wondered if Edward hadn't simply been making fun of me. It was always a possibility, although I had no idea what would have made him come up with something like _love _on his own.

However, the subject of my thoughts distracted me momentarily by bursting into the room loudly. "The police are here!" he said quickly. "They're back to look for Charlie, apparently, since they think he's gone missing."

"Where's his body?" I asked in alarm. As much as it hurt to talk about my father's death, I knew what we would be subject to if the police found my father's body in our backyard.

"We've buried it," Edward reassured me, "But the problem lies within the bloodhounds that they've brought with them."

"Damn it," I breathed. I didn't usually swear, but I felt that the situation was tense enough that I could bend my rule a little bit. "So basically, we have no chance."

"Carlisle's afraid that they'll see us if we go and dig up his body now. Besides, they'll probably come here anyway, just to question us about it. It was probably a mistake to bury him, since that will look much more suspicious than if they found him lying on the ground. If he's buried, there's no way that his death could have been an accident."

"Why were the police here in the first place?" I asked; my curiosity piqued in spite of the seriousness of our predicament.

Edward rolled his eyes and said, "Apparently Alice stole a car a while back, and an ingenious detective managed to trace the theft back to us. That basically means that we accidentally left one of our false identity papers in the car when we returned it. But even so, our pictures were on them."

I blew out a short, irritated breath. "Alice," I muttered sourly. "Imagine the trouble you'd be in if they found _me_ here!" I said, the horrible thought suddenly occurring to me. "My mother is probably raising hell in Phoenix, thinking that I was kidnapped.

"Don't even talk about it," said Edward, shuddering slightly. His eyes darkened noticeably. "Anyway, so the cover story we're using for Charlie is that we were out of town at the time and we had no idea what was going on. I'm fairly sure that we didn't leave any fingerprints on him, so there's really not any proof that they have against us."

"I hate this," I grumbled. "It seems like we're living such a life of secrecy and deception. I mean, I've killed someone and we're preparing to deny it to the world. It just seems morally wrong to me."

Edward paused in the doorway, looking at me with compassion in his now-softened eyes. "I know how it feels. But we don't kill people on a regular basis. In fact, we don't at all if we can avoid it. We try our best with the lot life has thrown at us. It's the best we can do."

I grimaced at his words, but brightened suddenly when a brilliant idea occurred to me. "Wait a second! What if I just _forced_ the policemen to leave? You know, with my power? Do you think it would work?"

He had looked mildly hopeful when I had exclaimed, but then the excitement in his eyes dulled. I immediately knew that he had found the disadvantage to my plan, and waited grimly to hear the worst.

"The thing about that is…" he began hesitantly, watching me to gauge my reaction, "Well, that wouldn't shut off their _minds_. In fact, that would just convince them that we're even stranger than they already thought we were. I don't think that they would take very kindly to being made to leave by some unknown force. It would just expose us to the media even more."

"Oh," I said quietly, my hopes coming crashing around my ears. "I guess my plan wasn't as brilliant as I thought it was.

He looked at me intently, obviously trying to read my mental state, and said slowly, "Well, I suppose if you're really so worried about this, then we might be able to make an escape… I'd have to talk it over with Carlisle, of course. We might be able to make it out when none of them are looking…" He concentrated, thinking deeply.

"That wouldn't work either," I said gloomily. "If we left, the police would just think that we had things to hide since we never were at home. Besides, it seems a little suspicious that you're not home on the day before school starts after the weekend."

"That's true," he said, sharing my depression. We both thought about ways around the confrontation in a glum silence for a while, but as the silence told me, neither of us was getting very far.

Suddenly, Alice burst in. "The police are in the entrance hall talking to Carlisle!" she exclaimed. "They want to see the whole family for questioning. We'd all better be able to verify each others' stories, or we're all sunk!" She bounded back out, and down the stairs.

"Well, there goes our chance of escaping," I said, crestfallen. "There's no backing out now." To my surprise, Edward began to laugh at my disappointment. I scowled at him, not finding the situation one bit funny.

I dashed downstairs, almost forgetting to use human speed. Edward caught up with me easily, still laughing heartily. I ignored him stolidly, and focused carefully on the conversation going on a few staircases below us.

"Mr. Cullen, the police are under orders to search your property for a certain Charlie Swan, who disappeared a few days ago. Have you seen him recently?" a policeman that I vaguely recognized asked Carlisle.

"No, actually," said Carlisle, shaking his head. "It's upsetting that he's disappeared so suddenly. Do you have any idea why he may have vanished?"

"No," said the policeman slowly, scrutinizing Carlisle carefully, "But we're not ruling out kidnap."

All polite airs that Carlisle had put on dissolved. "Are you suggesting that _we_ kidnapped him?" Carlisle asked, his countenance still calm. "I can assure you that we had nothing to do with his disappearance. We have never had a problem like this before, nor have we been accused of any wrongdoing! You have absolutely no basis in fact that we would be likely to kidnap Charlie Swan."

The policeman merely raised an eyebrow. "The reason Charlie was here is premise enough for us to arrest you on a few charges, and we actually were sent to," he told us. He pulled out a sheaf of papers. "We have a warrant for your arrest, having found strong evidence that your family was behind the theft of a car and also forgery of legal papers."

Carlisle said nothing. Edward and I were still watching and listening from the top of the stairs. Edward said quietly to me, "We've got no choice now. We're going to have to leave, and permanently."

"Does Carlisle know…?" I asked.

"Yes, of course," Edward told me. "He's the one who made the decision. But quickly, we've got to round up the others so we can leave. Get Rosalie and Emmett, while I tell Esme and Alice."

I nodded once in agreement, then shot off to find the couple. I located their room, and promptly forgot to brake. Before I knew it, I had crashed through the door, leaving a Bella-sized hole behind me.

"Oops," I said, glancing back sheepishly. "Sorry about your door."

Emmett, however, was not to be deterred. "What's the problem?" he asked quickly. He must have guessed that I probably wouldn't have been running at high speeds in the house unless the issue was fairly urgent.

"We have to leave now; the police are here about Charlie!" I blurted out quickly. "Carlisle's stalling them right now, but we haven't got much time!"

Rosalie's eyes widened at my declaration, and she instantly sprang up and grabbed a large duffel bag out of her closet, and began throwing clothes, shoes, and makeup in at top speed. Emmett began doing the same.

I realized that we probably wouldn't be coming back, so I dashed back out and into my new room. I opened the closet full of clothes that Alice had bought for me, and began tossing them into a bag that I had found. Once I was packed, I slung the bag over my shoulder and slid down the stairs.

Everyone was already there, waiting for me. They mostly had their bags hidden behind their bodies so that the policemen couldn't see them. We all gathered behind Carlisle, pretending to listen to the questions he was being asked, but really watching all his movements for some kind of signal.

Carlisle put one hand behind his back and held up one finger, then another, and then the last. It was obvious what we were to do: run.

All at the same time, we grabbed our bags and flew toward the door. We were out before the policemen had even noticed that we had moved. When they did, there were shouts of confusion and of frustration.

An order came from behind us, "Get them! Do whatever you deem necessary; just _stop_ them!"

I turned my head sideways to look at Alice, whom I could barely see at the speed we were going. She rolled her eyes, and I grinned back. We were both thinking the same thing: the police had no chance whatsoever of catching us.

The forest passed by in a blur as we followed Carlisle and Esme, who were running lightly at the head of the large group.

Suddenly, they came to a screeching halt, and surprised, we all did the same. Then, the wind blew sharply against our faces, and we gagged at almost the exact same moment. A stench had reached us, one a thousand times worse than rotting eggs. I held my breath rather than inhale the horrible fetor.

I scanned the forest carefully, and picked up on the one con to running away: the werewolves. There they stood, in a large pack before us, looking menacing although they were in animal form.

Edward, obviously acting as translator again, said, "You have broken the treaty by killing Charlie Swan. You have left us no choice."

Without warning, and with a lithe gracefulness that only a vampire could match, the wolves sprang silently.

Then, my eyes lit up. I didn't know how to fight the wolves, but there was one thing I _did_ know how to do that would help my whole family get rid of the problem.

_Stop_, I commanded them in my head. I focused every fiber of my concentration on forcing the wolves to halt in mid-spring. They did, and the effect was almost comical. However, I had no time to laugh, as I still had a job to do.

_Go home_, I ordered them, and obediently they turned and began to run off, silently. I still concentrated fiercely, for I didn't want to take any chances with the lives of the Cullens.

Once I was sure that they were gone, I turned to my family, grinning rather broadly. "I wish I'd thought of that earlier," I said, a little ruefully.

"Well, we did discuss it," said Edward reasonably. "I just didn't realize that you were so powerful. But it's no matter. Right now, we need to get out of here as fast as possible. Once we get south into Oregon, maybe we could pick up a car? It would be a lot faster in the long run."

"That would be a very good idea," Carlisle agreed. He was the only one besides Edward that didn't looked shocked at the turn of events. He motioned forward with one hand, and we all picked up our bags and prepared, yet again, to fly.

**That's a good chapter-ending sentence. :) Hopefully, you're not too angry with me for leaving the wolves alive.**


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